There is no constitutional or statutory provision mandating reservations for the transgender community - MahaTransco to Bombay HC

Recently, the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd. (MahaTransco) told the Bombay High Court that there is no constitutional or statutory provision mandating reservations for the transgender community. In the absence of the same, the company does not have the power to provide reservations for the transgender community. These submissions were made as part of an affidavit filed by the company's chief general manager Sudhir Wankhede in response to a request by an individual to modify the company's advertisement for mass recruitment issued in May 2022.

The petitioner, Vinayak Kashid, was aggrieved by the exclusion of the transgender community in the application form as the petitioner is a graduate in Electrical Engineering and postgraduate in Technology (Electrical Power System Engineering) course. Kashid claimed that she saw an advertisement issued by MahaTransco in May 2022 to recruit Assistant Engineers for 170 vacant posts. While filling the form, Kashid observed that the advertisement was in breach of the Top Court judgment in National Legal Services Authority vs Union of India, where the Apex Court had recognised various rights for the transgender community.

The Transmission Company contended that the advertisement or the recruitment procedure nowhere prohibited any transgender person from participating in the process. In view of the same, there was no violation of transgender person's rights or discrimination against them.

MahaTransco responded after Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik requested a response in June 2022.