Madras High Court tells Tamil Nadu govt to decide quota for transgender, intersex persons

The Madras High Court has directed the Tamil Nadu government to take a decision on reservation for transgender and intersex persons, so that they need not knock the doors of the court every time, seeking a quota in public employment and in educational institutions.

Justice N. Anand Venkatesh gave the directive while passing interim orders on 4 August, Monday, on a petition filed by N. Sushma and U. Semma Agarval and posted to 15 September the further hearing of the case.

The judge placed on record his appreciation of the state government unveiling the Tamil Nadu State Policy for Transgender Persons 2025, made effective from 31 July 2025.

Extracting the suggestions made by the authorities, the judge said amongst all the suggestions made, one important suggestion that requires immediate consideration pertains to Clause 3.7 of the policy, which uses the term "Right to Representation in Employment and Educational Institutions".

It was not clear as to whether the government wants to provide horizontal reservation to the transgender and intersex persons, which has always been the request made by the community and which has been reflected in many of the earlier orders passed by the various courts, including the judgment of this court, he said.

Hence the state government was directed to take a decision in this regard, the judge added.

The judge added that the additional public prosecutor had submitted that insofar as the policy for other persons in the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, the same was under process and some time was required to finalise the same.

Now that the state government has come out with a policy for transgender (T) and intersex (I) persons, "it is time that the government comes up with a policy for LGBQA+ persons also. This process should be expedited," the judge added.