DGP rejects sex change plea of female constable
The minimum height for women police constables is 157 cm.
Mumbai: The inspector general of police (establishment) Aurangabad range, on Monday rejected the application of a female constable seeking permission to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
In an order, the IGP said that, as per recruitment rules, the minimum height of a male constable should be 165 cm while the height of applicant — who joined police force in 2009 — is 162.5 cm and she could not be accommodated in the male section of the police force and hence should not be granted permission for the surgery.
Beed resident Smita Deshpande (name changed) had moved the application to the director general of police (DGP), Maharashtra, via her lawyer Dr Ejaz Abbas. Apart from a month’s leave on medical grounds, she had also requested that she should be accommodated as a male police constable after her surgery.
Stating that his client was advised by a doctor to undergo sexual reassignment surgery to medically make the necessary changes to her body, Dr Abbas said, “Due to hormonal changes, she is living in the physical condition of a transgender, and society is usually unfair and cruel towards the third gender so she wants to become a male person now. In the present situation, she has been deprived of her right to equality too.”
IGP Rajkumar Whatkar’s order, passed on Monday, states that Rule 4 (1) (A) and (B) of Police Constables (Recruitment) Rules, 2006, provides for various physical tests for male and female candidates. As per the women and child welfare department’s 2000 GR, there should be 30 per cent women constables in the Maharashtra police force and the applicant was appointed in the force in 2009 in compliance with the government’s above decision.
According to the order of the DGP office, one of the physical conditions for recruiting constables is that the height of male candidates should be 165 cm at minimum and female candidates should be 157-cm tall. During physical tests, Ms Deshpande’s height was found to be 162.5 cm in 2009, when she was selected in the force.