Transgender To Be A Separate Category In Prison, Center Tells High Court

Chetan Sharma Additional Solicitor General (ASG), made the submission before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, in response to a PIL seeking a direction to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to "make requisite policy and format amendment to include the data on transgender prisoners" in the prison statistics reports.

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The Union Government told the Delhi High Court on Monday, that through communication that has been issued to all the states and union territories, it has been directed to include data of transgender prisoners in prison statistics reports from 2020 onwards. Chetan Sharma Additional Solicitor General (ASG), made the submission before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan, in response to a PIL seeking a direction to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to "make requisite policy and format amendment to include the data on transgender prisoners" in the prison statistics reports. Asking to quash the petition, the ASG told the High Court, that the communication was issued on December 4 and therefore, nothing remains in the petition. ASG Sharma stated that NCRB has issued a communication informing that it intended to classify prisoners as male, female and transgender from its report, Prison Statistics India - 2020 onwards. Officials have been directed to prepare for the collection of data accordingly, NCRB has said. The PIL which was filed by Karan Tripathi, who claims to be a legal journalist and an independent researcher in the field of criminal justice and criminology, was disposed of by the court, after the ASG’s submission. The Union Government responded immediately to the court’s query on December 1, as to what steps it has taken for including data of transgender prisoners in its latest prison statistics reports. Tripathi, whose PIL was represented by advocate Akhil Hasija, had also sought a direction to the central government to ensure the prison authorities and departments "maintain data on transgender prisoners/inmates in each and every document/report required to be maintained by them".