The Bar Council of India informed the Kerala High Court that it has granted interim approval for a transgender quota, allowing two supernumerary seats in both three-year and five-year LLB courses across state law colleges for the 2025–26 academic year.
Kochi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) informed the Kerala High Court that it has granted interim approval to the Kerala government’s proposal to create two supernumerary seats each in both three-year and five-year LLB courses across all law colleges in the state for transgender students for the upcoming academic year 2025–26.
Earlier, Kerala High Court has approached the Bar Council of India (BCI) to approve the addition of two more seats for transgender students in all Government Law Colleges across the State.
The court passed this interim order to ensure that transgender students get proper representation in legal education in Kerala.
Previously, During the hearing, BCI’s counsel informed the court that its General Council had not yet convened to decide on the issue.
However, the court observed that “the matter cannot wait endlessly” and emphasized the urgency of the situation.
The judge directed BCI to approve the Kerala Government’s request, dated 6.08.2025, for the creation of the additional seats within 10 days.
The court also mentioned that the matter will be listed again after 10 days to verify compliance with the order.
The petitioner, a transgender woman, had applied for admission to the integrated five-year LLB course through the Kerala Law Entrance Examination (KLEE) 2025.
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A transgender woman filed a petition seeking admission to the integrated five-year LLB course through the Kerala Law Entrance Examination (KLEE) for 2025.
Although she qualified and was listed in the rank list, her admission to the Kozhikode Government Law College was denied due to the absence of a separate category or seats for transgender candidates in the central allotment list provided by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE).
The petitioner argued that this rejection infringed upon her fundamental rights, as well as the Supreme Court’s directives established in the NALSA judgment and the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
Consequently, she requested the Court to order the relevant authorities to grant her admission for the academic year 2025-2026 under the transgender reservation category.
Additionally, she sought the establishment of such reservation for transgender individuals across all government law colleges in the state and other educational institutions managed by the government.
Following an update from the Bar Council of India (BCI) today, the petitioner’s counsel indicated plans to include all law colleges and universities in the state in the proceedings, having previously added only the University of Calicut as a party.
The Court is scheduled to revisit the case on November 7 to provide further directions to the universities.
Justice VG Arun remarked,
“Let this be beneficial to others as well.”
Advocates Raghul Sudheesh, Unnikrishnan S Thandayaan, Umadevi M, Ambily T Venu, and J Lakshmi represented the petitioner, while Standing Counsel Rajit appeared on behalf of the BCI.
The State was represented by Attorney N Manoj Kumar and Senior Government Pleader PG Pramod.
Case Title: Esai Clara v. State of Kerala & Ors.
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