The bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petition, noting that the Bihar government had included a separate column in the list...
Digital Desk: The Supreme Court on Monday stated that the transgender community cannot be considered a separate caste.
The Supreme Court observed while hearing a request challenging the Bihar government's decision to include the transgender community in the caste list as a separate category rather than as a separate caste.
The bench led by Justice Sanjiv Khanna dismissed the petition, noting that the Bihar government had included a separate column in the list for transgender people so that the State would have access to their data.
"Transgender is never a caste. This has been taken care of. There are now 3 columns - male, female, and transgender. So data will be available," the bench stated.
According to the top court, transgender people can receive some benefits as the third gender but not as a separate caste.
The bench stated that the people of the community could be from any caste.
"What you are wanting is that transgender persons be treated as a separate caste. That may not be possible. They can be treated separately and conferred certain benefits, but not as a caste. Because there will be transgender persons from across the board - from different castes," the Supreme Court stated.
Data from a caste-based survey have now been released for the first time in Bihar. According to the research, 19.7% of people are from scheduled castes, 36.1% are from extremely backward classes, 27.1% are from backward classes, and 1.7% are from scheduled tribes. 15% of people in the population are general. The state's total population is over 13.1 crore.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar stressed the survey would be "beneficial for all" and "enable the development of various sections of society, including the disadvantaged" in August after the exercise was completed.
The Bihar government decided to conduct a caste survey in June of last year.
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