In an order passed on April 8 this year, Justice GK Ilanthiraiyan quashed an existing order (GO) of the Tamil Nadu government that provided horizontal reservation to transpersons in the State who identified themselves as women, and vertical caste-based reservation for the rest of them.
Horizontal reservations refers to reservation given to a class or group cutting across groups enjoying vertical reservation.
Thus, while reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) is vertical reservation, reservation for persons with disabilities or women’s quota would count as horizontal reservation.
So, if there is ten percent vertical reservation for SC/STs and five percent horizontal reservation for transgender persons, then five percent of the seats reserved for SC/STs have to go to transgender persons from such communities.
The single judge called such GO arbitrary and in breach of Constitutional principles and said that the State must instead, provide horizontal reservation to the transgender community in compliance with the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement within 12 weeks of the Court’s order.
Source: Barandbench
