SC to hear after 3 weeks transgender’s plea on cabin crew job

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear after three weeks a plea by a transgender woman who challenged Air India’s refusal to give her a job as a cabin crew.

A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari, and Sanjiv Khanna said it will hear the matter after three weeks after Senior Advocate Anand Grover, representing the petitioner, contended that the matter has been pending since 2017 and his client had filed an application for early hearing on the main petition.

In 2017, the apex court had sought responses from Air India and the Civil Aviation Ministry on the plea.

The authorities concerned defended their decision and submitted that the petitioner could not secure minimum marks required to qualify for the personality test and group discussion. They insisted that there was no discrimination at all.

In July, the top court had allowed her to amend the plea while challenging the Air India decision.

The petitioner had claimed to have worked for 13 months in the airlines sector and also in the customer support of Air India at Chennai.

The petitioner said she underwent the gender correction surgery in April 2014 and this information was published in the state government gazette.

The petitioner contended she had taken four attempts but could not be shortlisted for the post she had applied for despite faring well in the tests.

In her plea, she contended that she was not shortlisted for being a transgender, as the vacancies in the cabin crew were meant only for women.

“The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016 prohibits discrimination. It is clear that no person shall discriminate against a transgender person in relation to employment or occupation…,” her plea said.