The Gujarat High Court has directed the Gujarat Police Recruitment Board to keep one post vacant for a transgender applicant while it considers a petition seeking a separate third-gender category in the ongoing Class III police recruitment process.
The order follows a petition filed by a 35-year-old transgender applicant from Bhavnagar, who applied for the posts of unarmed constable and police sub-inspector. The applicant argued that the recruitment form offered only male and female categories, leaving no separate option for transgender candidates.
According to the report by Nav Gujarat Samay, the applicant contacted the Director General of Police’s office during the application process to ask which category should be selected. The applicant was advised to apply under the category recorded on the Aadhaar card, where the identity was shown as female. The application was subsequently submitted under the women’s category.
The applicant passed the Physical Standard Test and the Physical Efficiency Test. In the written examination, the applicant secured 94 marks, while the merit cut-off for the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes women’s category was 98.5 marks. The merit list was published on July 11, after which the applicant approached the authorities and requested that the candidature be assessed under a third-gender category rather than under the male or female categories.
The petition stated that no separate category or provision had been created for transgender candidates in the recruitment process. It sought an opportunity for transgender applicants through a separate, constitutionally appropriate cut-off and selection criteria. The applicant also told the court that representations made to the authorities had not received a response.
During the hearing, the High Court directed the Police Recruitment Board to keep one position vacant for the petitioner. The direction is specific to the applicant while the court examines the plea; the report does not state that the court has ordered a general reservation or created a permanent third-gender quota across the police recruitment process.
The court referred to the Supreme Court’s recognition of transgender persons as a third gender and the rights and reservation-related protections available to them. The Gujarat case raises a practical administrative question: whether recruitment systems that provide only male and female application categories can adequately implement those constitutional and statutory protections.
The applicant has obtained a transgender identity certificate issued by the district collector under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. That certificate, alongside the gender recorded on identity documents and the categories available in recruitment forms, has become central to the dispute.
The immediate next step is the court’s further examination of the petition while the recruitment board preserves one post for the applicant. The supplied report does not specify the next hearing date or indicate whether the board has introduced changes to the recruitment form or selection framework.
