Kerala HC directs Bar Council to reserve seats for transgender students in law colleges
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THE High Court of Kerala has issued an interim direction to the Bar Council of India to approve the creation of two additional seats for transgender persons in all law colleges across the state. The order dated Friday, October 24, is in response to a writ petition filed by Esai Clara.
Esai approached the court seeking directions for an admission reservation to the Integrated five-year LL. B. course at the Kozhikode Government Law College, under the transgender category.
In his order, Justice VG Arun stated that the learned Standing Counsel had placed the matter before the Standing Committee for Legal Education, and the Committee passed the onus on to the General Council of the Bar Council of India. But there was no clarity as to when the General Council would convene next.
“In my opinion, the issue cannot wait endlessly for the General Council of the Bar Council to meet,” Justice VG Arun said in the order.
Though the petitioner had passed the entrance to the said course and was included in the rank list, admission was denied, citing a lack of a separate seat for transgender candidates in the central allotment list issued by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE).
In the petition filed on August 18, Esai stated that not extending the reservation is a clear violation of the binding directions issued by the Supreme Court of India. The NALSA judgement, passed by the apex court in 2014, provided for self-identification of transgender persons as ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘transgender’ and said that the government must make provisions for education, health, employment, etc. of transgender persons, stressing affirmative action.
The request for the additional seats for transgender students was made by the Kerala government to the BCI on August 6. The subsequent order in this matter, passed on October 24, states that the approval be granted within ten days of receipt of a copy of the order.
It was in 2018 that Kerala introduced a higher education reservation policy for transgender students across all state universities and affiliated arts and science colleges. Institutions were required to reserve two seats for transgender undergraduate or postgraduate students.
