On May 5, a Division Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan issued notice to the Union of India, state governments, union territories, the National Board of Education in Medical Sciences, National Medical Commission and Ministry of Social Justice in a petition seeking to implement horizontal reservations for transgender persons in admissions to seats for postgraduate medical education programmes in both central and state quota for the year 2025-2026.
On April 16, an admission notice was issued by the National Board of Education in Medical Sciences regarding the conduct of National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) – PG for the year 2025-26. On April 17, an information bulletin was also released by the board pertaining to the same.
The petitioners, Kiran A.R. (a doctor and a transgender person from the Scheduled Caste category working in Tamil Nadu), B. Venkata Bhagiradhy Mythrraa (a doctor and a transgender person from the Other Backward Classes category living in Andhra Pradesh), and Vignesh Dhananjayan (a doctor and a transgender person from the unreserved category presently completing her internship in a medical college in Tamil Nadu) sought the quashing of the notice and information bulletin for being violative of Article 14, 15, 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution. The petitioners also argued that the notice and bulletin contradicted the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in National Legal Services Authority of India v Union of India (2014). In that judgement, the top Court had directed the Union and state governments to take steps to treat transgender persons “as socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and extend all kinds of reservation in cases of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments”. Despite eleven years having passed since the directions of the Supreme Court, no action has been taken by the central or state governments to implement the same.
The petitioners sought the Court to direct the respondents to issue a fresh admission notice which provides compartmentalised horizontal reservation to the petitioners and for transgender persons by reserving one percent of seats for transgender persons in each vertical category.
Prior to filing the petition, the petitioners sent representations requesting for the implementation of horizontal reservations for transgender persons in postgraduate medical admissions in central and state quotas for 2025-2026.
The petition also argues that the notice and bulletin are in violation of Sections 3, 8(1), 13 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 as well as Rules 10 and 11 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020.
It also stated that multiple High Courts have issued judgments in favour of horizontal reservations for transgender persons, including the Telangana High Court in the cases of Dr. Koyyala Ruth John Paul v. Union of India (2023), and Dr. Praachi Rathod v Union of India (2023), and the Madras High Court in Rakshika Raj v. State of T.N. (2024).
On Monday, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising appeared for the petitioners, assisted by advocate-on-record Paras Nath Singh, and advocates Rohin Bhatt, Harshit Anand and Rajagopalan R @ Kanmani R. The Bench issued notice to the respondents returnable in two weeks.
Case details: Kiran A.R. v. Union of India, Writ Petition (Civil) No. 461/2025 and I.A. 114812/2025
Disclosure: One of the founders of The Leaflet appeared in the matter and the matter was filed by a member of the editorial board.
