TRANS WOMAN MOVES KERALA HIGH COURT CHALLENGING NCC’S EXCLUSION OF A TRANSGENDER PERSON FROM THEIR PROGRAM

                                                                                                    NOVEMBER 1, 2020

Section 6 of the National Cadet Corps(NCC),1948 Act has been challenged as illegal and unconstitutionality of Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Indian Constitution, which permits only males and females to enrol the corps.

The complaint had been filed by Hina Haneefa,  a 22-year trans woman student at the University College from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala High Court, after being allegedly denied entry to the NCC program because there was no provision to enrol transgender students in the NCC. The petitioner’s request to join the NCC has not been taken into deliberation despite the (State of Kerala’s Transgender) policy and all the social transformation that has been happening for the past several years in this field.”

The two-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the NALSA Vs Union of India declared transgender people as the ‘third gender’, and assured that fundamental rights granted under the Constitution of India would be equally valid to them, and gave them the right to self-identification of their gender as male, female and transgender.”

In the appeal, Hina scrapped down Section 6 of the NCC act and requested an order to be passed, issuing directives to the Associate NCC Officer and the Commanding Officer to permit her to join the NCC.

Author: Shweta Singh