Govt examining proposal to amend statute to register transgender nurses

The submission was made before Justice G Jayachandran, who was hearing a plea moved by Rakshika Raj who sought a direction to the Registrar of TNNMC to allow her to enrol herself as ‘third gender’ and grant seniority to her along with the 2019 batch.

Rakshika had submitted that being a transgender, she wanted to get her name to be enrolled as transgender and hence had given an application on March 06, 2019, to the Health Secretary, Registrar of Tamil Nadu Nurses and Midwives Council, Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Service, and Indian Nursing Council. But the application has not been considered, prompting her to move the writ petition.

However, the Additional Advocate General (AAG) appearing for the Health Secretary and Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Service submitted that the proposal to carry out the necessary amendment in the statute to register the transgender getting enrolled in the council was under consideration of the government.

Hence, pending statutory amendment, the petitioner’s request would be considered and council would make a temporary entry in the registry as far as the petitioner was concerned as woman transgender, as she has given a declaration for her conversion from man to woman, the AAG added.

Based on this, Justice Jayachandran disposed of the plea after directing the council to accept Rakshika’s application and register her name as woman transgender for now, and alter it with effect from the date of application once the legislation was given effect.