Transgenders To Be Included as Separate Gender Category in NCRB Reports: Centre Informs Delhi High Court

The Centre today informed the Delhi High Court that transgenders shall now be included as a separate gender category in Prison Statistics Report prepared by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma submitted this before the Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan hearing the petition.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by Karan Tripathi seeking inclusion of separate data on transgender prisoners in NCRB reports.

During the last hearing the Court has observed that prima facie the prayers were "reasonable."

Arguing for the implementation of rights guaranteed to the community by the Supreme Court in its guidelines laid down in the case of NALSA v UOI, Tripathi said that without recognition to the transgender inmates, these guidelines could not be implemented.

He also argued that inclusion of transgenders as a separate category in Prison Statistics Reports was imperative for ensuring the protection under of their rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India.

Sharma informed the Court that the NCRB has already issued a directive to its officials that it intends to classify prisoners as male, female and transgenders from its report, Prison Statistics India - 2020 onwards and therefore data must be collected accordingly.

The petitioner was represented by Advocate Akhil Hasija.