Observing it to be a good petition, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking equal protections for transgender community against sexual offences.
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde agreed to hear the plea and issued notice to all the respondents of the PIL.
The bench also asked Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, representing the petitioners, to file a detailed note in the court on the list of issues where the court has previously laid down guidelines or has legislated on similar issues where the law was yet to be formulated.
Chief Justice Bobde to quote an example said, “There are number of cases where the court has legislated till the law came in to place, like the Vishakha guidelines or the 377 case.”
The petition filed by Advocate Reepak Kansal highlights the absence of provisions under Indian Penal Code which could protect a third gender from sexual assaults by other third gender or male/females. It added that to safeguard the Transgender community the anti-discriminations laws are required to be formulated.
Kansal submitted that the Indian laws are limited to provide protection to men and women and since transgender are the third gender, they are unable to approach authorities to avail justice due to lack of legal provisions. Further, a discrimination on the basis of them being a third gender is against the ethos of the fundamental rights guaranteed under the constitution. The discrimination is deprivations of the numerous rights and priviledges which are thoroughly enjoyed by the other citizens of the country, stated the plea.
Raising the concerns on the shocking statistics, the plea revealed that there is a high level of sexual abuse and assault on the transgender community. Wherein at somepoint in their lives, one in two transgender individuals have been assaulted or sexually abused.
The PIL has sought directions for the government to formulate gender-neutral laws in order to fight the menace of sexual harassment.
It also sought directions for modification of IPC provisions dealing with sexual assaults in order to include the third gender individuals in the definition and other related provisions in order to provide them protection under the law.
