Karnataka Proposes 1% Reservation For Transgender Persons In Govt Jobs

The Karnataka government has proposed to reserve 1 per cent of vacancies in all categories of employment to be filled up through a direct recruitment process. This proposal applies to government jobs as well.

The state government has informed the Karnataka High Court that draft rules have been published to amend Rule 9 of the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules, so as to provide 1 per cent reservation for transgender persons in jobs, reported The New Indian Express. The reservation would be available in each category of general merit, schedule caste, scheduled tribe, and in each of the categories of among the Other Backward Classes, states a draft notification

A copy of the draft notification was submitted to a division bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj of the High Court on Friday, June 18, during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by Sangama, a society working for the welfare of the transgender community, and Nisha Gulur, who works for the welfare of the community.

No Objection To Proposed Law, Says Govt

The government told the court that no one had objected to the draft notification though 15 days had been given to the public to submit their objections or suggestion to the proposed rules.

However, the Karnataka government clarified to the court that final notification for reserving 1 per cent of vacant posts by inserting Rule (1D) under Rule 9 would not be issued till finalisation of the objections received for amending Rule 16, which was also proposed in the same draft notification. Rule 16 proposes to bar transfer, deputation or posting of any government officer belonging to any other service or post to the posts of Tahsildar Grade-1 and Tahsildar Grade-II.

The draft notification also states that all appointing authorities must provide a separate column of 'others' with male and female gender in the application for recruitment to any category of Group A, B, C or D posts to enable transgenders to avail reservation.

However, if the sufficient number of eligible transgender persons are not available to the extent of 1 per cent, the vacancies should be filled by male or female candidates belonging to the same category, it states.

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