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Synopsis

The Delhi government told the Delhi High Court on Monday that over 100 toilets have been built for exclusive use by transgender people in the national capital.

The counsel for the social welfare department told a division bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula that a total of 102 such toilets have been built and 194 more are under construction.

"Efforts are being made and further action will be taken expeditiously," the counsel submitted.

The counsel for the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), which functions under the union ministry of home affairs, informed the bench that 12 toilets for transgender people are operational in the area under its jurisdiction and tenders for construction of 79 more have been awarded. The area is commonly referred to as Lutyens' Delhi.

Observing that "substantial progress" has been made by the authorities, the bench said that it will pass an order on the petition. "We will dispose it of," the court ordered. 

The court was hearing a PIL filed by Jasmine Kaur Chhabra 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.