SC notice to Centre on plea against guidelines excluding gay, transgenders from being blood donors
New Delhi, Mar 5: The Supreme Court Friday sought responses from the Centre and others on a plea challenging the 2017 guidelines excluding transgenders, men having sex with men and female sex workers from being blood donors.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde agreed to hear the plea and issued notices to the Centre, the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) and the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) seeking their responses on the plea filed by a transgender activist from Manipur.
Issue notice, said the bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
The plea has also sought striking down of the clause of general criteria under blood donor selection criteria of the guidelines for blood donor selection and blood donor referral, 2017 to the extent it permanently defers transgenders, men having sex with men and female sex workers from being blood donors on account of being at risk of HIV infection.
The exclusion of transgender persons, men having sex with men and female sex workers from being blood donors and permanently prohibiting them from donating blood solely on the basis of their gender identity and sexual orientation is completely arbitrary, unreasonable and discriminatory and also unscientific, said the plea, filed through advocate Anindita Pujari.
It said that all blood units collected from donors are tested for infectious diseases including Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS and hence, permanently excluding them from donating blood and categorizing them as high-risk only on the basis of their gender identity and sexual orientation is violative of their right to be treated equally as other blood donors.
The plea claimed that the prohibition is due to assumptions based on negative stereotypes which amounts to discrimination and these persons are denied equal dignity under Article 14 of the Constitution as they are deemed less worthy and subordinate in social participation and healthcare.
It said there is more need for blood and plasma donations as blood supplies have come under pressure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Given the COVID-19 crisis, where blood transfusions are needed more than ever for emergency and elective surgeries and treatments, it is more critical than ever for members of the transgender community to rely on the generosity of their family and community members to meet the demands for getting life-saving blood to those affected by the pandemic, the plea said.
It alleged that transgender persons, gay and bisexual men who have been requesting to donate blood during the pandemic when their community and family members needed blood for emergency medical treatment were refused due to the permanent deferral under the impugned guidelines.
It claimed these guidelines are stigmatizing as they are neither based on how HIV transmissions actually works nor are they based on actual risk involved in specific activities but are based only on the identities of donors.
It said during 1980s when the HIV/AIDS outbreak occurred, in many countries such similar lifetime ban on blood donations on transgenders persons and men who had sex with men was implemented.
However, it was due to an outdated policy based on stigma and stereotype associated with transgender persons, men having sex with men and sex workers, the plea said.
Now such complete bans have been removed in many countries and now guidelines internationally on blood donation do not have such permanent bans based on identity, it said.
Many countries have revised their policies to not make deferrals identity based, but based on either a three-month or 45-day deferral from the last high-risk sexual contact, the plea said.
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Delay in K'taka govt first grade college asst professors’ appointment frustrates candidates
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has been delaying the appointment of the candidates recruited as assistant professors for government first grade colleges despite all procedures for the appointment being completed already.
The procrastination in issuing the orders has vexed the recruited candidates who have already seen not only a change in government in the state but also two major elections while waiting to get their dream jobs.
The state government had issued a notification through the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) in 2021, to fill the 1,242 posts vacant in 430 government first grade colleges in Karnataka. All the required processes, including submitting applications, conducting examination and publishing the results, have been completed as notified. The names of the 1,208 candidates recruited out the 1,242 final applicants, was declared on March 3, 2023, although the list of the names is not published in the official gazette. In addition, verification of the medical condition of the candidates, authenticity of their marks cards and Kannada medium and rural reservation certificates, issue of conduct certificate as well as police verification have been completed.
The candidates are also required to have validation certificates (sindhutva) that confirm their caste and income to finalize their selection for a post. So far, the eligibility of more than 800 candidates, including those selected under general merit, has been confirmed and the validation certificates of approximately 600 candidates have been submitted to the Department of Collegiate Education.
The selected candidates and various organizations have been submitting requests to the government to publish the list of eligible candidates in the official gazette and also to issue the order copies to the candidates. The government, however, is yet to issue the appointment orders, which has been worrying the candidates.
As the recruitment process took three consecutive years, the academic status of students too has been affected. The classes were not completed within the scheduled time, forcing the students of government first grade colleges to depend solely on guest lecturers.
The BJP government, which was in power when the notification for the posts was issued, had delayed the recruitment process by two years. Further, in 2023, the election code of conduction during the Karnataka Assembly polls impeded the process. The new Congress government in Karnataka too has been neglecting the matter, in spite of many suits being filed at the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT), which has resolved all the concerned issues and cleared every impediment for the issuing of order copies to the selected candidates.
KP Madhusudan, convener of the assistant professor candidates' association, has said that the recruitment process, which was started in 2021, is yet to be completed, even after three years. He urged the state government to issue the notification of the appointment order by May-end at the latest.
Dr. MC Sudhakar, Minister of Higher Education, told Vartha Bharati that the model code of conduct had been enforced on account of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections and the state government would take steps to issue the order copies to the selected candidates after the election results were declared.
