This entry concerns the application of the self-identity principle of gender determination in a pension matter. This simple looking judgment not only sees transgender women as women but also by the correct application of the NALSA judgment and the Transgender Act 2019[1] confers financial rewards on the correct constituents. The case was brought by the daughter of Balaji Kondagari, a government servant working in the rural development department. Upon Balaji’s death, his wife received his pension, and once she passed away, the pension was to devolve upon the survivors. The Kondagaris were surv ..read more

This month’s entry concerns a case which arose through an unfortunate series of incidents, but which signposts to important future developments on sexual orientation and gender identity laws in the country. In this matter, an employee of a Bangalore based company alleged harassment regarding his sexual orientation and caste identity. The case presents a complex factual situation in which the employee felt increasingly undervalued in the organization; his work received does neither recognition nor feedback, his superiors did not speak to him professionally, and jokes and innuendos about his sex ..read more

PART 2 OF 2 2. Can the Judiciary Avoid Acting Once it has Found an Act Discriminatory? In the Chief Justice’s own words, if a statute is found to be unconstitutional, it must be read up or read down or found unconstitutional. Perhaps this is why he did not engage with the constitutionality of the SMA at all, because he was not prepared to do either. Reading up or down would have been prohibited by institutional capacity because of what the petitioners were asking, and striking the legislation down would have deprived many others of the benefit of the Act. However, once he found that the non-re ..read more

Hereditary Criminality This judgment decided the fate of the Telangana Eunuchs Act, 1329 Fasli[1], a shocking vestige of the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) era, which I believed had been relegated to the history books.[2] Contrary to appearance, the Telangana Act was not a new Act, legislated after the creation of the State of Telangana in 2014 but a piece of colonial legislation inherited at independence. The Act’s purpose was to register and control eunuchs, in line with the thinking of its parental source that certain tribes were addicted to the commission of habitual offences. The logic was tha ..read more

..read more

This month’s blog concerns an appeal from an order of the Kerala High Court concerning a queer/lesbian couple. One of the partners filed a habeas corpus petition in the Kerala High Court alleging that their partner was being illegally detained by the parents who were against the relationship. When the petition came up for hearing in the Kerala High Court on the 13th of January, 2023, that court passed an order directing the District Legal Services Authority to interview the allegedly detained partner at her parent’s house to determine the truth of matter. If the interview were to reveal forcef ..read more

I. Introduction At last count, there were 9 marriage petitions pending in various Indian High courts. Collectively, these petitions mount a multi-faceted attack on various Indian marriage laws for their failure to provide for queer marriages, either expressly or implicitly. In this blog, I identify the specific laws under challenge and summarise the main grounds of those legal challenges. II. The Laws under Challenge Section 7(a)(1)(d) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (‘CA’) permits foreign spouses of OCI cardholders, i.e., oversees citizens of India (those who have surrendered their Indian passpo ..read more

1. The Petition This case followed the S. Sushma style of continuing mandamus issued by the court to monitor the progress on the NALSA directives, among other things. The cause of action was the denial of rations to certain portions of the transgender community during COVID. The petition, filed in the High Court of Patna in May 2020, prayed for 25 kgs. of rations for all members of the transgender community, monetary assistance for six months’ rent, a speedy grievance redressal system, and a one-stop facilitation centre. In this blog, I will summarise the proceedings under this petition. 2. Co ..read more

..read more

Does a public appointment advertisement that fails to include transgender persons violate the constitution and offend the NALSA reservation direction? A single judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court was faced with this particular question in this instance. Summarily, he found that though such advertisement offends equality, it does not violate the NALSA reservation direction because of certain context specific reasons. In this blog, I will deal with the equality analysis and the reservation analysis of the court. I. EQUALITY ANALYSIS OF THE COURT The court noted that the constitution is silent ..read more