The State government on Monday informed the Madras High Court that it is in the process of amending the police conduct rules to punish personnel who harass people belonging to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and such others’ (LGBTQIA+) community.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh was told that pursuant to orders passed him on August 31, the Director General of Police wrote to the Home Secretary on September 22 recommending necessary amendments to the conduct rules. The matter was now under consideration of the government.
State Public Prosecutor Hasan Mohammed Jinnah also stated that circulars were issued to all top police officers impressing upon the need to conduct sensitisation programmes for the police personnel. The programmes had already begun in some of the districts.
Advocate S. Manuraj, representing a lesbian couple on whose petition the judge had issued a slew of directions to the Centre and the State to protect the LGBTQIA+ community from social prejudices, informed the court that the State government was also revising its transgender policy.
The judge directed the government to place the revised policy before the court on December 6. He recorded the submission of Additional Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan that the Centre too had been proactive on the issue of addressing the needs of the transgender.
He said the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment deals only with issues related to transgender and that others were handled by the Union Home Ministry. Therefore, the judge suo motu included the Home Ministry as a respondent to the case and ordered notice.
When the judge wanted to know the status of the direction issued by him to the National Medical Commission to change the MBBS curriculum so that doctors do not have the wrong notion that gender identity issues were curable and end up prescribing conversion therapy for the “so called disease”, the NMC sought time to respond.
“This wrong notion has arisen only due to the type of curriculum that is available for the MBBS course. This court while passing the earlier order made it very clear that necessary changes must be brought-in in the curriculum failing which there will be doctors who will be indulging in conversion therapy with a foolish notion that there is a cure for gender identity/sexual orientation,” the judge wrote while granting time till December 6.
