EVEN as the Supreme Court had way back in the year 2014 assured that transgenders be treated as “third gender” and granted legal recognition of their identities, they continue to face hardships in routine affairs such as filing of income tax returns since there is no option for a “third gender” on PAN cards and forms.
Faced with trouble in filing income tax returns, a transgender social activist from Patna, Bihar, has moved the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to create a separate “third gender” category on PAN cards and application forms for PAN to enable transgender persons to get accurate identity proofs.
In her petition filed through Human Rights Law Network, Reshma has challenged the September 19, 2017 order passed by the High Court at Patna dismissing her petition for self-identify as the Third Gender in PAN for the purpose of linking PAN and Aadhaar and to avail of the associated benefits.
Reshma said in her petition that in 2017, she was recognised by the Government of Bihar for her innovative idea of a new start-up known as NaachBaaja.com to provide a platform to transgenders in Bihar and to recognise their skills of dance and music as an art.
Reshma wanted to avail of the financial grants from the state of Bihar for registering her company. She, however, failed to register the same despite several attempts because it required the creation of a Digital Signature Certificate on the website of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for which identity proofs such as Aadhaar Card and PAN are needed.
The petition also cited that the Gujarat government had in 2017 written to New Delhi office for taking steps to include the third category in the application form for obtaining PAN card by forwarding a petition by Lakshya Trust, a charitable organisation.
On August 1, 2017, Reshma had sent a representation to the Chief Commissioner (Bihar and Jharkhand), Department of Income Tax, seeking to change her identity on her PAN card and personally visited their offices but in vain. The matter was listed before the Supreme Court on March 28. The court directed Ms Hasan to serve a copy of the petition on the Attorney General of India and listed the matter after eight weeks.
Courtsey : LIVELAW NEWSNETWORK