Court proposes separate lock-ups, prisons for transgenders

Court proposes separate lock-ups, prisons for transgenders

 

Third Genders have full legal rights and cannot be shuttled between man and woman depending upon convenience, said the Delhi Court. Therefore it proposed on the need for separate lock-ups, prisons and other provisions for transgenders, who have been declared as third gender.

The court cited the Supreme Court's recent landmark verdict by which it has declared transgenders/eunuchs as a third gender and said it was time for the criminal justice system to effectively recognize them as such and create separate lock-ups, prisons, toilets for them when they are on the wrong side of the law. It also said that it is time to arrive at a consensus to suitably amend the rules relating to prisons and lock-ups in this regard.

The court passed the order in a case in which a man was beaten by several persons, including two eunuchs, when he objected to their nude dance in public in a residential area under the influence of alcohol as they were attracting adverse public attention with large number of men jeering and cheering them in November 2012 in Begumpur in north west Delhi. When victim Raju Chauhan's pregnant wife Savita came out to save him, several men and eunuchs also beat her up leading to her abortion, it said.

"It, therefore, becomes equally important that when they are on the wrong side of law or commit violation of existing statutory law of the land, they be proceeded against and punished in accordance with law just as any other 'Person' whether a 'Man' or a 'Woman' after ensuring that their human and constitutional rights are in no manner compromised. Provisions for creating separate lock-ups/ prisons and making separate provisions for the transgenders/eunuchs has been necessitated as they have full legal rights and cannot be shuttled between man and woman depending upon convenience and denying any effective legal status to them is violative of human rights," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said.

"It is observed that the hesitation of the police to act in cases of receipt of complaints in case of violation of law by these eunuchs/ transgenders is primarily on account of the fact that they find themselves incapable of proceeding against them within the existing infrastructure and paraphernalia as has happened in this case," the judge said.