SC Issues Directives on Separate Toilets for Trans Persons in Courts

The absence of adequate washroom facilities undermines equality and poses a barrier to the fair administration of justice, the Supreme Court held on Wednesday, directing all high courts, state governments and Union territories to ensure the availability of adequate and inclusive washroom facilities across all court premises and tribunals in India.

- Utkarsh Anand

For the first time, the top court also issued categorical directions to provide separate toilet facilities for transgender persons—a landmark move ten years after its pivotal NALSA judgment granted legal recognition to the transgender community.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan, in its judgment, declared that access to sanitation is not a mere convenience but a human right and intrinsically linked to the constitutional right of access to justice.