The Rajasthan High Court has removed portions of its March 30 judgment criticizing the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, stating they were included by mistake. In an April 2 clarificatory order, the bench said the observations were neither intended nor necessary. The case stemmed from a petition by a transgender woman in the Rajasthan Police.
A bench of the Rajasthan High Court, led by Justice Arun Monga and Justice Yogendra Kumar Purohit, issued a clarificatory order on April 2, expunging paragraphs from the epilogue of its March 30 judgment. These portions had criticized the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, for diluting constitutional guarantees on gender self-identification. The bench stated, "Upon our re-reading of the epilogue, it appears that by mistake the following text was included therein, although it was neither intended nor necessary."
The petition was filed by Ganga Kumari, a transgender woman working in the Rajasthan Police. She sought horizontal reservations for transgender persons in public employment, challenging a state notification that placed all transgender people under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. The court ruled this classification discriminatory, depriving transgender individuals from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and other groups of benefits, calling it a "mere eyewash."
The court directed the state to provide 3% additional weightage in marks to transgender candidates across all reservation categories until a comprehensive policy is framed. It also ordered formation of a committee headed by the Principal Secretary of the Social Welfare Department, including social activists and transgender community representatives, to assess marginalization.
The request to exclude the entire epilogue was denied. The court retained its view that the right to self-identify gender is an intrinsic aspect of dignity under Articles 14, 15, 16, and 21 of the Constitution. The amendment bill passed Parliament last week and received presidential assent on March 30.
