The Karnataka High Court has held that the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) ‘s current admission and financial aid policy discriminates against transgender persons and directed the institute to provide an interim reservation of 0.5 percent in all courses for transgender applicants seeking admission to NLSIU.
In an order passed on December 16 this year, Justice Ravi V Hosmani said that NLSIU must provide such interim reservations for transgender candidates and also offer them a fee waiver until it formulates a reservation and financial aid policy for all transgender applicants by the Supreme Court’s 2014 NALSA judgment.
“NLSIU is directed to implement directions issued by Hon’ble Supreme Court in NALSA’s case by formulating reservation along with measures for providing financial aid to TGs in education before commencement of admission process for next academic year; Until then to provide reservation of 0.5% (half the percentage of reservation provided for TGs in employment under State) as interim reservation with fee waiver and for which NLSIU may apply to State/Central Government for appropriate grant,“ the judgment said.
The Court also directed NLSIU to admit a transgender candidate, the petitioner in the present case before the Court, under the 0.5 percent interim reservation.
“The present admission and financial aid policy of NLSIU is discriminatory against TGs and thereby deprived them of pursuing LLB Courses,” the Court concluded.
The Court was hearing a petition filed last year by a 33-year-old transgender person seeking admission to NLSIU’s 3-year LLB course and seeking directions to the institute to implement the NALSA judgment.
The petitioner had applied for the law course under the general category and secured admission.
However, the petitioner could only pay ₹50,000 out of over ₹1 lakh fee for such a course.
NLSIU provided a percentage of the remaining amount to the petitioner but initiated cancellation of the admission on account of non-payment of fee.
In August last year, another bench of the High Court had directed NLSIU to admit the petitioner as an interim measure and said that such admission would be subject to the outcome of the plea.
During further hearings, NLSIU had told the Court that it did not provide reservation for transgender candidates as the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 and the 2019 Rules did not explicitly provide for reservation in admissions to private or autonomous institutes.
The State government told the Court that NLSIU was an autonomous and independent body and therefore, the petitioner’s argument that it needed to comply with the provisions of the Karnataka State Policy on Transgender Persons, 2017, was untenable.
NLSIU also told the Court that it had taken several measures to create a level playing field for transgender applicants. However, the petitioner was not entitled to main or interim reliefs, as Central or State governments had not framed any law after the decision in the NALSA case, NLSIU told the Court.
However, the High Court held that it was strange that in all of its arguments, NLSIU had failed to mention whether it was taking any steps to provide reservations for transgender applicants and students and if it was devising any financial aid schemes tailored to suit transgender persons.
“Strangely, it (NLSIU) has not disclosed whether any steps are in progress or were taken for providing reservation and suitable financial aid policy specifically tailored for TGs. It is also not known whether the existing admission process accommodates TGs securing admission or undergoing studies in NLSIU. Therefore, failure of constitutional guarantees of equality of opportunity due to lack of measures/adequate measures for positive discrimination in securing sufficient representation to TGs in educational avenues in NLSIU is evident,” the High Court said.
The High Court also directed the Karnataka government to take note of claims for reservation for transgender candidates in education and “formulate reservation and fee reimbursement policy” for them.
Senior Advocate KG Raghavan and Advocate Aditya Narayan appeared for NLSIU.
Advocate Mamata Shetty appeared for the State government.
The Court made a special mention to Research Assistant SR Naveen Kumar for his assistance to the Court in the matter.
