New Delhi: In a landmark initiative towards LGBTQIA+ inclusivity, the Supreme Court announced Wednesday that nine gender-neutral restrooms are being created in the court premises and that the online appearance portal for advocates has also been made gender neutral. The portal for advocates-on-record to register for appearing before the SC was launched earlier this year.
The initiative approved by Chief Justice of India, Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud is aimed at revisiting the modes of organisational and spatial development for sensitisation towards and inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, to ensure a dignified work environment at the apex court, stated a communique released by the apex court.
The Supreme Court release added that senior advocate and gay rights litigator Menaka Guruswamy has been included as a member of the 11-member Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee at the apex court. A proposal to broaden the scope of the ‘Gender Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee’ to ‘Gender and Sexuality Sensitization and Internal Complaints Committee’, as demanded by 24-year-old non-binary queer rights activist and lawyer Rohin Bhatt, is also under “active consideration”, added the statement.
These developments come after Bhatt wrote to the CJI in December last year, seeking changes in the apex court to end alleged discrimination against the queer community.
Bhatt had also requested the CJI to modify the appearance slips for lawyers at the apex court (forms to be filled by a lawyer through an advocate-on-record in Supreme Court for appearing before the court), seeking the inclusion of an additional column in the slip for mentioning people’s pronouns so that they may be correctly used in the court’s orders and judgments.
Later, he also wrote to the SC’s Gender Sensitisation and Internal Complaints Committee’s Chairperson Justice Hima Kohli on 22 March this year, seeking “infrastructural inclusivity” and queer representation in the committee. Referring to the Bar Council of Kerala enrolling its first transgender lawyer, Bhatt had raised the issue that with more and more queer lawyers joining the bar, it becomes important to have an infrastructure in place to provide them support.
“I was sure that the CJI will do it [consider his request] because it is for the first time we have somebody who has been an active advocate for diversity in the judiciary and in the profession as a whole so he has kind of walked the talk,” Bhatt told ThePrint, after the SC announced the changes.
He added: “Our Supreme Court is perhaps one of the only democratic institutions today where one can be assured that their voices will be heard. It is one of the few institutions that is being attentive to the needs of queer people.”
While praising the CJI, Bhatt also said due credit should be given to Justice Kohli, as all his requests made in the letter to Justice Kohli have been incorporated. ThePrint has a copy of his letter to Justice Kohli.
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Role of SC in ensuring inclusivity
“I did not feel safe going into a men’s bathroom, but I still had to, but now I have our gender-neutral bathrooms to go to,” Bhatt said, recalling a conversation he had had on the subject with someone he had confided in.
Bhatt’s demands to the CJI had included having a member of the bar from the queer community, who can advocate for their needs and interests, be included in the Gender Sensitisation Committee, as he said that among the previous 11 members there was no representation of transgender people from the bar, the bench, or the nominated members.
“The legal profession is now becoming more inclusive for queer lawyers. I think the Supreme Court has sent a message to itself and subsequently, this is going to trickle down to the high courts that queer people deserve to be called to the bar and they deserve to be active members of the legal profession,” Bhatt said.
Another of his demands had been having gender-neutral bathrooms on every floor of the Supreme Court.
Talking about the role of the Supreme Court in ensuring inclusivity of gender and sexual minorities, Bhatt said the apex court had sent out a message with this initiative that equality is non-negotiable and that the court will also walk the talk.
“A lot of people including myself have for long seen that the Supreme Court has talked a lot of equality but has done little to achieve it. I’ve been a critique of the Supreme Court in that regard, but today the Supreme Court has shown that things are changing slowly but steadily and this does not mean that we will stop holding the courts to account. But at the same time, it’s time to celebrate a small victory that we won today,” Bhatt said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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