Battle Continues: Telangana Doctor unable to get Gynaecology Seat as gender identity ignored despite HC order

Hyderabad: The battle for the transgender doctor from Telangana, Dr. Ruth John Paul, seems to be never-ending as she has not been able to get a postgraduate medical seat in gynaecology since her gender identity was not taken into account by the authorities.

In Telangana, the counselling for the PG medical seats via the NEET counselling is conducted by the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS).

According to the notification sent to Ruth by KNRUHS, only the caste status of Ruth (i.e. Scheduled Caste Madiga) was considered during seat allotment in August this year and her gender identity was ignored once again, states a recent report by The News Minute.

She was only been granted two seats- one MD seat in Emergency Medicine at ESIC College, Sangareddy and another seat in MD Pathology at Osmania Medical College.

These seats were allotted to Ruth exactly one day after the contempt of the court proceedings. Even though neither of these two seats were in keeping with the verdict of the High Court and they were not in the field of her choice, Ruth decided to join the MD Emergency Medicine course at ESIC Sangareddy.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported how Dr. Ruth took the matter before the Telangana High Court and sought a direction to the authorities to provide a separate category for transgenders other than women and general. Earlier this year, the HC bench had directed the authorities to consider the representation by the petitioner doctor and pass appropriate orders by duly taking the law laid down the Hon’ble Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authorities case.

Also Read: NEET PG: Telangana HC Slams State for not registering transgender doctor under third gender category

Although the petitioner made a fresh representation before the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Commission said that since PGMER 2000 does not provide for reservation on the basis of gender, the petitioner could not be given a seat under the 'third gender' quota.

Last month, the HC bench took note of the fact that despite the earlier court direction, the State did not instruct the counselling authority to register a transgender doctor under the 'third gender' category in the NEET-PG examination 2023. Taking note of this, the bench slammed the State.

While the HC bench had ordered the authorities to provide reservations to Ruth under the transgender quota, a recent media report by The News Minute adds that while allotting the seats in August, KNRUHS only took the caste status (SC Madiga) of Ruth into consideration and for a second time her gender identity was ignored.

Commenting on this, Ruth told the Daily, “I wanted to join the gynaecology course to help members of my community. Most transgender persons are not only uncomfortable with cis doctors, but also often face discrimination and judgement from them.”

The Daily further adds that Ruth was allotted seats in colleges that were not of her choosing and this was in violation of the order of the Telangana High Court granting her the choice to opt for gynecology seat in any college, given that she is the only eligible trans person this year. Now, if she leaves her seat at ESIC, she will have to pay a fine of Rs 20 lakh according to the bond executed at the time of admission at the medical college.

Supreme Court Judgment: 

Back in the year 2014, in the case of National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, the Supreme Court had directed the authorities that "Hijras, Eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as “third gender” for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of our Constitution and the laws made by the Parliament and the State Legislature."

"We direct the Centre and the State Governments to take steps to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes of citizens and extend all kinds of reservation in cases of admission in educational institutions and for public appointments," it had further ordered.

Despite the Apex Court's order, neither the Telangana State Medical Council nor the Union Ministry of Education have amended the rules in keeping with the NALSA judgment, which makes the University unable to reserve the seats for trans persons in the medical colleges.

While commenting on the matter, Ruth's lawyer Sagarika Koneru explained the reservation policy for transgender persons and added, “The Union Ministry of Education and the state Medical Council have to amend the guidelines for reservation for transgender persons in keeping with the NALSA judgement. Until the Ministry of Education amends the guidelines, the KNRUHS is not in a position to implement any reservation.”

This has now resulted in a blame game as the University is blaming the State Government and in turn, the State is blaming the Unon Government.

Earlier this year, when Ruth made fresh representation before the National Medical Commission, the commission clarified that the PGMER 2000 do not provide for reservation on the basis of gender and therefore, the Ruth, the petitioner before the HC bench could not be given a seat under the 'third gender' quota.

Challenging the NMC order, the petitioner doctor approached the Telangana High Court and sought reservations for transgenders in terms of the decisions of the Supreme Court in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India.

Even though the HC bench ordered the authorities to allot seat to Ruth each in the state and central quotas, considering both the gender and caste markers, her gender identity was not taken into account.

“I applied for counselling in the central and state categories in early August. While the first list for the central quota acknowledged me as a transgender person, no reservation was made available,” Ruth told TNM.

Following this, she could not avail the second round of counselling for the Central quota as she could not login until the last date of application had expired. Under the State Counselling list as well, Ruth was categorised as a cisgender female.

When Ruth filed contempt of court proceedings against the Union Health Ministry, Union ministry of Education, Medical Counselling Committee and KNRUHS, the HC bench once again ordered the authorities to allot seats to Ruth in both quotas in a manner beneficial to her.

At present, Ruth is working as a Medical officer at Osmania General Hospital in the Antiretroviral wing and treating patients afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Speaking to TNM she expressed her hopes of getting listed for the second round of State Counselling for NEET 2023, and mentioned, “I am happy to be serving people in need and have received the support of several individuals, including the superintendent of OGH Dr Nagender, but there is still a long road ahead.”

Also Read:Telangana Doctor becomes first to bag PG medical seat under Transgender Quota