High Court Issues Notice On Plea Seeking Framing Of Policy For Issuing Revised Punjab Board Exam Certificate As Per Transgender Act, Rules

The Punjab & Haryana High Court issued notice on a plea seeking the formulation of a policy for Punjab board examination certificate for transgender persons in consonance with the provisions of the Transgender Person (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and the Transgender Persons Rules, 2020.

Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri issued notice to authorities including the Chairperson, the Secretary of the Punjab School Education Board, the Secretary of the Department of Social Security, Punjab, the Union of India and authorities of the Schools where the petitioner studied.

The plea was filed by a transgender woman Priya, who was assigned male gender at the time of birth and hence her gender in school board certificates was written as "Male."

It was her case that while growing up she identified herself as a transgender woman and got Transgender Certificate of Identity and Identity Card from Jalandhar District Magistrate in 2022.

Priya applied to the Punjab School Education Board to change her gender in certificates of class 5th, 8th, 10th and 12th but she was asked to publish the same in the newspaper and execute an affidavit, stated the plea.

After publishing the same in newspapers, she approached the Municipal Corporation Jalandhar and the officials expressed helplessness to change the gender on the basis of transgender certificate, it added.

She submitted that the Punjab School Education Board authorities asked her for a list of documents but her transgender certificate was not on the list and she was allegedly "humiliated and mocked" by the officials.

The plea sought directions to quash the "instructions" of the Board where requirements to change the gender were "contrary" to the judgement in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India wherein the Apex Court  recognized the "Right to decide self-identity and gender and Section 7 (3) of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act."

It also prayed for directions to the Punjab School Education Board to sensitize their officials towards Transgender persons and not to discriminate against them in compliance with Section 8 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

The matter is listed for January 23, 2025, for further consideration.

 Title: Priya alias Gourav v. Punjab School Education Board, & Ors.

Advocate Maninderjit Singh for the petitioner.