Read Time: 04 minutes

Synopsis

The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed Delhi Government time to file its response to plea seeking direction for construction of separate public toilets for the transgenders/ third gender. 

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad was hearing a plea raising the issue that the state government has lacked in providing adequate services to the society, building separate public toilet facilities especially for the transgenders even after being discussed and directed by the Supreme Court and various High Courts.

The plea filed by Jasmine Kaur Chhabra through Advocate Rupinder Pal Singh stated that "Every human being be it of any gender has some basic human rights one of which includes facilities for using separate public toilets. It is not fundamentally or morally judicious/correct to ask any one specific gender to use a public toilet which is made for any other gender."

In light of the Supreme Court's decision in National State Legal Authority vs. UOI (2014), Chhabra in her plea contended that the State is obligated to provide basic facilities, including separate public toilets for Transgender/Third Gender people.

It has been argued that "since, there are no separate toilet facilities for transgenders, they have to use male toilets where they are prone to sexual assault and harassment."

The plea highlighted that out of 29 states in this country no state has separate public washrooms except for cities Mysore, Ludhiana, and Bhopal for the third gender.

Additionally, "the transgender community consists of 7-8% of the total population of this country which makes it very necessary for the authorities to provide same facilities and equal treatment to them in this regard," the plea added.

Case Title: Jasmine Kaur Chhabra v. Union of India & Ors.