Built 143 public toilets for trans persons: Delhi govt to HC

The Delhi government’s social welfare department told the Delhi high court on Monday that it has built 143 public toilets exclusively for transgender people and is building another 223 washrooms for them.

The department in its status report submitted before a bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet PS Arora said it has also designated 1,584 separate public washrooms meant for people with disabilities (PWDs) for third gender people.

The development comes three years after the Delhi government mandated that all its departments, offices, district authorities, municipal corporations, and state-run companies have separate and exclusive washrooms for third gender people. Though the government in 2021 granted its agencies two years to build these exclusive toilets, it had directed its departments to allow trans people to use gender-based toilets according to their self-identified gender.

The status report was filed in a plea seeking directions to the Delhi government to construct separate washrooms for third gender people claiming that their absence made the transgender population prone to sexual assault and harassment. The plea filed by a law student, Jasmine Kaur Chhabra, in 2021 argued that authorities in Mysore, Bhopal, and Ludhiana had begun building separate public washrooms, but no such initiative was taken in the national capital.

Additionally, the plea also sought directions to the Delhi government for maintaining the hygiene of washrooms so that the rights of transgender community are protected in terms of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v Union of India (2014) in which the Supreme Court.

On November 8, 2023, the high court directed the Delhi government to expeditiously build toilets and asked the government to file a status report indicating the steps it has taken till date for the creation of separate toilets for transgender people and the number of toilets created. It also directed the government to disclose whether it is undertaking new construction in public places for separate toilets.

During the hearing on Monday, the Delhi government, represented through additional standing counsel Heetu Arora Sethi, said that the government was willing to abide by the court’s orders regarding expeditious construction of public washrooms. Chhabra, represented through advocate Rupinder Pal Singh, said that his client had no objection to the plea being closed in light of the department’s undertaking.

The court closed the petition, making the Delhi government bound by its statement and undertakings. “Making the respondents bound by the statement and undertaking given in the status report and action taken reports, the present writ petition is closed,” the court said in its order.

The Delhi government in July 2022 informed the high court that it was making all possible efforts to create separate toilets for the use of transgender/third gender persons and the same will be done on a fast-track basis.