The controversy surrounding a 29-year-old police constable's request to the Maharashtra government to undergo a sex reassignment surgery, has prompted the state police to include gender determination test in their recruitment process.
Lalita Salve, who now prefers to be called Lalit, met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis last month seeking his permission to undergo the surgery and be retained in the police force as a male police constable after the procedure.
"Till now, we did not have a gender determination test during police recruitment. However, going by this case, we felt the need to introduce such a test to avoid complications in future," said Rajkumar Vhatkar, inspector general of police (establishment).
The recruitment process of around 8,000 police constables is underway in Maharashtra, he said, adding the gender determination test will be included during the process.
Besides physical tests, the police force is including the gender test to avoid male candidates being selected in the female category, another police official said.
This case is unique for the 1.80-lakh-strong police constabulary in Maharashtra. Salve grew up as a woman and was recruited as a woman police constable, he said.
Salve moved the Bombay High Court in November, seeking a direction to the DGP to grant Salve leave to undergo the surgery.
Salve also sought a month's leave for the surgery, but it was rejected by Beed police authorities, after which the constable approached the high court.
Later, Fadnavis asked the DGP to consider Salve's case favourably.
Salve is a member of the all-women patrolling team called "Damini" squad, formed to keep eve-teasers at bay, at Majalgaon in Beed district.
When Salve met Fadnavis last month, the latter asked DGP Satish Mathur to take a "quick decision" in the case.
After meeting the chief minister, Salve had appeared "hopeful" of getting permission for the surgery and of being retained as a male police constable.
According to the petition, Salve, born in June 1988, noticed changes in her body three years ago and underwent medical tests, which confirmed the presence of Y chromosome in her body.
While men have X and Y sex chromosomes, women have two X chromosomes.
"The petitioner later undertook counselling sessions with psychiatrists at the state-run J J Hospital. The doctors detected that she had a gender dysphoria abnormality and advised her to undergo a sex reassignment surgery, if she was willing to and was of sound mind," the petition said.
Subsequently, Salve approached senior police officials and sought a month's medical leave to undergo the surgery.
"Last week, the superintendent of police (SP) of Beed district informed the petitioner that she could not undergo a sex reassignment surgery and refused to grant her leave," the petition said.
It contended that the said decision of the Beed police authorities was violative of the petitioner's fundamental rights.