The Telangana Eunuchs Act, 1329 Fasli has recently been declared as unconstitutional. The act, which was first enacted in 1919, required the registration of “eunuchs” residing in Hyderabad who were accused of “kidnapping or emasculating boys” and allowed for their arrest without a warrant. The court observed that the law stigmatized entire communities, including eunuchs, as criminals and was an intrusion into the private sphere of transgender persons.
A divisional bench, consisting of Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice C.V Bhaskar Reddy, passed the order. The bench observed that the law is “an intrusion into the private sphere of transgender persons as well as an assault on their dignity”. The court further termed the law as arbitrary and stated that it is offensive to both the right to privacy and the right to dignity of transgender persons. The legislation has been struck down as violative of both Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The court also noted that the legislation was based on the assumption that eunuchs as a class were criminals and had grouped eunuchs and certain tribes declared as criminal tribes under a single classification. The bench stated that such an enactment can no longer continue to find a place in our statute book. This ruling is a significant step towards upholding the human rights of the third-gender community.
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