A petition before the Delhi High Court has sought a direction to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to recognise and classify transgenders as a separate third gender in their annual publication of Prison Statistics India.
The petition has sought direction to the prison authorities and departments to maintain data on transgender prisoners or inmates in each and every document or report required to be maintained by them.
The plea filed by law graduate Karan Tripathi has claimed that NCRB continued to fail to include the third gender or transgenders in the sex-wise statistics of the prison inmates all over India in its annual Prison Statistics India since the past seven years.
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The petition filed through advocates Yash Mishra, Akhil Hasija and Manyaa Chandok has argued that unless NCRB does not assign a proper sex to the prison inmates who may be transgenders, there cannot be a proper guarantee of their civil rights, constitutional rights and even basic human rights.
Harassment prevention
This, the plea, said was necessary to prevent harassment of transgenders in prisons and in jails, by staff and inmates. The plea has urged the court to give direction to the authorities to make requisite policy and format amendment to include the data on transgender prisoners either in the latest Prison Statistics Report, 2019, or in the subsequent reports.
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It also pointed out that other official reports such as Crimes in India 2018 and Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2018, has recognised the transgenders as a third gender. “However, in complete violation of Article 14 of the Constitution, respondent no.1 [NCRB] has arbitrarily and without any reasonable classification, wilfully abstained from including the third gender in the sex-wise classification of Prison Statistics India,” the plea, which is likely to be heard on Tuesday, said.