Madras High Court directs appointment of woman misbranded as transgender

Coming to aid of a 24-year-old woman who was misbranded as a transgender, the Madras High Court has asked the Tamil Nadu government to appointment her as a police constable. The woman's application for the post of constable was rejected by the authorities after being provisionally selected in 2012 as they branded her as transgender on the ground of absence of uterus and ovaries.

Allowing the petition of Nangai (name changed) of Ariyalur, Justice S Nagamuthu said that "if absence of uterus and ovaries is to be taken as a decisive factor for sexual identity as a transgender, it would be disastrous because it is only a congenital defect such as visual impairment or hearing impairment". The denial of employment by "misbranding" her as a transgender was not sustainable in law, he held.

All government records including her school certificate too mentioned her as a female. The judge directed the authorities to issue appointment order to her as Grade II women police constable and depute her for training within a period of two months from the date of receipt of the order.