“We are, thus, of the view that she is entitled to be recruited to the post of sub-inspector and for declaration of her result with the hope that she would carry out the duties with dedication and commitment to advance the cause of other transgenders”, court said after hearing Yashini’s peition.
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She has since been living with the support of the transgender community in Chennai.
The Tamil Nadu police now has three transgender constables, but none at the officer level.
Blazing a trail through intricate government and judicial process, gritty transgender K Prithika Yashini has finally realized her dream of donning the uniform of a sub-inspector of police in Tamil Nadu police department. It also asked the state’s Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board to include transgenders as a category in their next recruitment process. “She will have to meet the benchmark of the recruitment process, but the case can not be knocked out in the middle”.
Prithika hails from the Salem town of Tamil Nadu and underwent a sex change operation in 2011.
The First Bench that heard Prithika’s petition, comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, pointed out the Board’s failute at providing a third gender category in its application form, despite a Supreme Court direction, reports The Hindu. She first came to the court for permission to take part in written examination held on May 23, 2015. However in February this year, when she applied for the post of sub-inspector, her application was rejected on the grounds that her name did not match the male birth name mentioned on her education certificates. She also qualified in every single physical test. Just in the 100 meters dash, she was late by one second, yet that was acknowledged.
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Her advocate, Bhavani, who has represented similar cases for other transgenders trying for government jobs, said, “This order would open new opportunities for many transgenders”.
