So much for judicial activism....
The hindu:
We cannot address Kinnars' woes: court
Legal
Correspondent
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a public interest
litigation petition for a direction to the Union government to treat 'Kinnars'
(neither man nor woman) on a par with the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and
socially and educationally backward classes, and to reserve separate
constituencies
for them to contest local bodies, Assembly and parliamentary elections.
The petition filed by Sonam Singh, a Kinnar, said Kinnars were facing
humiliation by every section and authorities never addressed their problems. It
wanted
a direction to the Centre to set up a National Kinnar Commission.
Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, heading a Bench, told counsel Santosh Kumar
Tripathi: "Your prayers cannot be granted by this court. You must go to the
government."
Counsel said that in the last 60 years not a single question had been raised in
Parliament about these people. Representations were already made but the
government had not taken any step to provide them employment and as a result a
majority of them were begging for a living.
The petition said the country had no data or record on the population of
Kinnars and the Election Commission had never decided their sex category, nor
did
it reserve separate constituencies for them to contest polls. While even
medically unfit persons were able to lead a respectable life, Kinnars were being
neglected though the Constitution guaranteed every individual dignity.
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