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The High Court of Delhi has directed the Delhi government to decide within a month on the representation demanding recognition of transgender community as a third gender for free travel in buses operated by the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).
The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora warned the GNCTD that if the representation was not decided within one month, it would summon the Managing Director of DTC before the court on the next date of hearing.
It further said that it was giving one last opportunity to the respondents, at the request of their Counsel, to comply with the orders of the Division Bench within a period of one month, failing which the Managing Director of Respondent No. 2 (DTC) shall remain present in Court on the next date of hearing.
The High Court listed the matter for further hearing on August 18.
The Single-Judge Bench was hearing a contempt petition filed against willful non-compliance of an order dated October 19, 2022 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court, directing the authorities to decide the representation within four months.
The 2022 order of the High Court came on a public interest litigation filed by one Amit Juyal, a transgender person seeking free travel for persons belonging to the transgender community in the DTC buses.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad had disposed of the petition with a direction to the state government to take a decision in the matter as expeditiously as possible within a period of four months.
The petition had alleged that since DTC tickets recognised only two genders – male and female, the petitioner who regularly commuted in DTC-operated buses, faced trauma and agony on account of non-recognition of transgender persons.
It was thereby submitted in the petition that providing cost-free travel to persons belonging to transgender community in DTC buses would be a promotion of social equality as they have always been shunned by society and treated as a community of untouchables.
The contempt petition filed through Advocate Amit George stated that the four-month period granted by the Division Bench expired on February 19, 2023. The indecision by the government on the issue was causing grave prejudice to the petitioner, who suffered during his bus travel as he was forced to choose a gender he did not identify with, noted the plea.