Karnataka Plans 1% reservation in Government Jobs For Transgenders

The Karnataka government plans to reserve 1% of all vacancies, positions, and opportunities in any service or job in all categories of occupation for transgender people to be filled through a direct recruitment process. The reservations have been proposed for government jobs.

The state government has informed the Karnataka High Court that a draft notification was issued on May 13, 2021, to amend Rule 9 of the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules to give 1% reservation for transgender people in jobs are released.

The reservation would be available in each category of general merit, scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, and each of the categories of Other Backward Classes.

On Friday, June 18, during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by Sangama, a society working for the welfare of the transgender community, and Nisha Gulur, who works for the welfare of the community, a copy of the draft notification was submitted to a division bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj.

The administration stated in its declaration to the court that no objections to the draft notification suggesting a 1% reservation for transgender people had been received. The public was given 15 days to submit any concerns or objections to the proposed rules.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka government informed the court that the final notification for reserving 1% of vacant seats by inserting Rule (1D) under Rule 9 would not be published until the objections to Rule 16, which was also proposed within the same draft notification, were resolved. Rule 16 seeks to prohibit any government official from any other service or post from being transferred, deputized, or posted to the positions of Tahsildar Grade-1 and Tahsildar Grade-II.

Despite the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling in the case of National Legal Services Authority vs. Karnataka, the petition claimed that the Karnataka government failed to reserve positions for transgender people during last year's recruitment to fill 2,672 special reserve police constables and other positions.

The draft notice further adds that all appointing authorities must include a separate column for 'others' in any application for recruitment to any category of Group A, B, C, or D jobs, including male and female genders, in order for transgenders to be eligible for reservation.

The draft rules specify that if a sufficient number of eligible transgender people are not available in the amount of 1%, the vacancies should be filled by male or female candidates from the same category.