The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed the Uttar Pradesh government and the state Election Commission to provide for inclusion of third gender/ transgender candidates in the documents of panchayat elections, including nomination paper.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud and Justice Shree Narain Shukla gave the order on a PIL seeking a direction for providing the column for third/transgender candidates in related documents/forms of ongoing panchayat election process in the State.
According to the petitioner’s counsel S. K. Mishra, no column for third or transgender candidates was available in election-related forms, including nomination paper, because of which candidates of such categories were facing problem.
The court, while fixing hearing of this matter next week, directed the respondents to provide a column for third gender PTI
