The Home Department of the Tamil Nadu government has granted age relaxation for transgender persons applying for posts in the state's police subordinate services.
The department has confirmed that the guidelines to the age relaxation will be similar to the ones provided to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates, who apply for the recruitment through the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services recruitment board, The News Minute reported.
"The observation made by the honorable High Court of Madras in its order for the upliftment of the third gender candidates, in compliance with the Honorable High court of Madras, the government hereby direct that the third gender candidates shall be granted age relaxation as provided to the SC/ST candidates for the recruitment through Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board, for the posts included in Tamil Nadu police subordinate services," the official government order as quoted.
This development comes following the petition that was filed by K Aradhana, a trans woman in 2018. Back in the year, she applied for recruitment online, at the age of 29, but her application was rejected because she was above the prescribed age of 26.
The court, in its interim order, had directed the recruitment board to consider Aradhana's application for the post, following which Aradhana appeared for the written examination.
The Supreme Court in one of the orders had stated that the Transgender community should be given relaxations similar to what marginalized groups get, as they equally face huge discrimination, prejudice and violence on a daily basis. The government order took note of the SC order.
"If the intent behind the orders of the Supreme Court of India in the National Legal Service Authority vs Union of India case in 2014 is to be carried forward, then we see absolutely no reason why reservation in age, which is applicable to destitute widows and ex-servicemen and the like, should not be extended to transgender persons," the order read.
In addition, the High Court had also addressed petitions filed by three more transgender candidates – Deepika, Thenmozhi and Saratha, seeking age relaxation for attending the common recruitment for the post of Grade II police constables/jail warders and firemen for the year 2019 and allowed them to write the exams as well.
Speaking to the media, trans rights activist Grace Banu said that development is in the right direction. However, the transgender community should not be equated to the SC/ST group, and should be provided with greater age limit relaxation, considering that the community members tend to drop out of school more due to gender-untouchability harassment, she added.
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