New Delhi: A division bench of the Karnataka high court on Wednesday, August 18, asked the state government to consider directing all state-owned corporations and statutory bodies to reserve 1% of their jobs for transgender people, Bar and Bench reported. Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice N.S. Sanjay Gowda were the judges in question.This move would build upon the state government’s decision in July of this year to provide horizontal reservation for 1% of government jobs to people from the transgender community. The move came through an amendment to the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules, 1977, and made the state government the first in the country to enact a legislation of this nature. Also Read: Karnataka Becomes the First State to Reserve Jobs for Transgender PersonsWednesday’s decision was made while the court was hearing an Intervention Application (IA) made by Sangama, a civil society organisation which works for the upliftment of sexual minorities, sex workers and individuals infected with HIV. The IA noted that a number of public boards and corporations in the state have their own provisions for recruitment and “do not necessarily follow the Karnataka Civil Services (General Recruitment) Rules”. Thus, a direction to all government boards and corporations to enact this 1% horizontal reservation “would ensure that even in these public authorities, transgender persons would get access to public employment”.Sangama was also party to the first case which led to the amendment of the 1977 Rules. The organisation had challenged the notification for recruitment of police constables in the state. This notification mentioned various requirements only for men and women, and did not have any provisions for transgender applicants. This case prompted the draft notification which suggested amending the Rules in the first place.The amendment added the new sub rule (1D) to Rule 9 of the concerned legislation which provided for reservation for transgender people in each category of general, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and in each of the categories among the Other Backward Classes. It further necessitated that every ‘Appointing Authority’ provide the option of ‘other’ along with those of ‘male’ and ‘female’ on their recruitment forms.The court has given the state government a period of six weeks to take action on the matter.