WE CANNOT ADDRESS KINNARS' WOES : SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a public interest litigation petition for a direction to the Union government to treat ‘Kinnars’ (neither man nor woman) on a par with the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and socially and educationally backward classes, and to reserve separate constituencies for them to contest local bodies, Assembly and parliamentary elections. The petition filed by Sonam Singh, a Kinnar, said Kinnars were facing humiliation by every section and authorities never addressed their problems. It wanted a direction to the Centre to set up a National Kinnar Commission. Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, heading a Bench, told counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi: “Your prayers cannot be granted by this court. You must go to the government.” Counsel said that in the last 60 years not a single question had been raised in Parliament about these people. Representations were already made but the government had not taken any step to provide them employment and as a result a majority of them were begging for a living. The petition said the country had no data or record on the population of Kinnars and the Election Commission had never decided their sex category, nor did it reserve separate constituencies for them to contest polls. While even medically unfit persons were able to lead a respectable life, Kinnars were being neglected though the Constitution guaranteed every individual dignity.

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