Delhi HC seeks NCRB reply on category for transgender persons in report

THE DELHI High Court Tuesday asked the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to inform it about any decision regarding the demand for inclusion of transgender persons as a separate third gender in its annual report on prison statistics.

In response to a submission that the matter was pending before a committee, the court asked the counsel representing NCRB to seek instructions. “How long will it take,” the division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan asked as it observed that prima facie the prayers were “very pertinent and reasonable”.

The court was hearing a PIL seeking a direction to NCRB for recognition and classification of transgender persons as a separate third gender in their annual publication of ‘Prison Statistics, India’.

It has been argued in the plea that it finds its basis in a Supreme Court ruling “wherein it has unequivocally given legal recognition to the transgenders, in addition to declaring their right to self-determination of gender”.