On October 17, 2025, the Supreme Court of India (“Court”) delivered scathing remarks against the State and the private sector for not taking appropriate measures to ensure protections and equal opportunity in employment to transgender persons. The Court’s views in Jane Kaushik v Union of India,1 transcends the immediate facts of employment discrimination to expose systemic failures in protecting transgender persons’ rights.
The concerned transgender person (“petitioner”) underwent gender affirmation surgery in 2019 while pursuing her educational qualifications. In November 2022, she secured employment as a teacher at a private school in Uttar Pradesh, only to face harassment and body-shaming from colleagues and students such that within eight (8) days, she was forced to resign after her transgender identity became known to students. The school later claimed her termination was due to poor performance, yet contradictorily expressed willingness to rehire her for teaching another subject (“first school”). In July 2023, a second school in Gujarat extended her an offer letter, only to later revoke the letter and deny her employment upon learning of her gender identity during document verification process.
Pursuant to this, the petitioner approached various State-level bodies/agencies such as the National Commission of Women and the National Council for Transgender Persons due to the absence of any grievance redressal mechanisms at the schools as was required under the law. However, this was to no avail and the petitioner did not get adequate redressal, which led to her invoking the writ jurisdiction of the Court eventually. This case is set apart from ordinary employment disputes due to the fact that the Court has highlighted not only inaction on part of private organisations but also the Government authorities for the absence of implementation of any effective mechanisms for complaints as envisioned by the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 and Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2020 (“Act and Rules”) and neglect of other anti-discriminatory provisions.
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