Plea in HC seeks removal of legal provision on eunuchs

The High Court on Monday ordered that notices be issued to the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) and the State police chief in a petition that seeks striking down of a legal provision that provides for maintaining a register of names and addresses of eunuchs suspected of abducting and emasculating boys.

The petition was filed by the Karnataka Sexual Minorities Forum for striking down section 36A of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963. The forum said the section, which the State government inserted into the Act in April 2011, had further marginalised the transgenders who already faced widespread stigma and discrimination.

Section 36 A operates on the “erroneous assumption” that members of the transgender community have an inclination towards crime, the petition said. The legal provision would lead to transgenders living under constant fear of police taking action against them.

The forum urged a division bench of acting Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna to declare the section ultra vires or strike it down or stay its enforcement. The bench then ordered the notices.

Sale of speed governors

The High Court has remanded to a single bench a case about the sale of speed governors in Karnataka. The appeal was filed by Rosmerta Autotech Pvt Ltd, a Gurgaon-based firm that manufactures speed governors. It had sought stay on a single-bench order that permitted Kerala-based Autograde International Private Limited to sell speed governors in the State.

Hearing Rosmerta’s writ appeal, a division bench of acting Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna stayed the single-bench order. Disposing of the appeal, it then sent back the matter to the single bench for further action.

Circus jumbos: Info sought

The High Court has sought information from the State government about the condition of five circus elephants lodged an under-construction building in Mandya district.

Hearing a PIL about the use of elephants for performance on Monday, a division bench of acting Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice B V Nagarathna instructed the government counsel to get the requisite information.

The counsel said he would submit the information after getting it from the government. The bench adjourned the hearing until January 2016 as a similar matter is yet to be adjudicated by the Supreme Court.