By Priya Gour
Published on: July 30th, 2022 at 18:18 IST
In a another huge sigh of relief to the transgender community, the Kerala High Court ordered for letting the community participate in sports event in their preferable category, in absence of a separate category for them.
The court passed an interim order while hearing a writ petition filed by a transgender person who identifies as a woman but was denied participating in a District-level Judo Competition. The reason informed was no provision for participation of transgender person in the event.
The counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Dhanuja placed before the court about the petitioner’s self-perceived gender identity as a woman and her hormonal therapy for almost 5 years post her surgery. And so, her participation in woman’s category be permitted. A reference was made to the Supreme Court’s order in the famous case of National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, in which transgender was recognised ‘as a gender identity.’
Justice V.G Arun reiterated about the Right to Equality of transgender community and quoted:
“It is my considered opinion that a transgender person is having equal right to participate in competitions. Here, in the absence of any category for participating transgender persons, the petitioner is seeking to participate in her identity as a woman. If the organisers have not made arrangements for participating transgenders, then the petitioner will have to be permitted to participate in her chosen category.”
Resultantly, the Kerala Judo Association and the Kozhikode District Judo Association was directed by the court to accept the petitioner’s application.