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Kochi, Nov 14 (IANS) The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the National Testing Agency (NTA) to correct the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) certificate issued to transgender scholar Rithisha Rithu so that it reflects her legally recognized, self-identified name. The interim order will remain in force until NTA completes the reform process within two weeks.
Justice VG Arun issued the direction on a petition filed by Ritu, who is the first transgender woman from Kerala to gain admission to Ph.D. Program.
She approached the court after her JRF disbursement was blocked due to the mismatch between the name on her fellowship certificate and the name in her bank account.
According to the petition, Ritu formally updated her gender identity and name in January 2023, when the District Magistrate issued her a Form 3 certificate under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.
In May 2024, he applied for the UGC-NET exam conducted by NTA.
Since her educational records and Aadhaar were not yet updated, she had submitted her previous name in the application while registering her gender as transgender/third gender.
Later he passed the exam in December 2024 and qualified for JRF.
Ph.D. After ensuring entry. Program in Social Work, he opened a bank account under his own identified name to receive fellowship funds through the Scholarship and Fellowship Management Portal (SFMP) of the UGC.
However, her attempt to link the account was rejected on the grounds of “beneficiary name mismatch”, preventing her fellowship amount from being released.
The petitioner argued that the denial of JRF funds, his only financial support for research, was solely due to the institutional failure to recognize his legally updated identity.
They argued that this is a violation of their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution and Sections 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8 of the Transgender Persons Act.
His petition sought directions to UGC, NTA and Canara Bank to immediately correct the records, release the fellowship and release Rs. 25,000 as litigation costs.
During the hearing, the court observed confusion between the UGC and NTA as to which agency was responsible for correcting the certificates.
Clarifying the issue, Justice Arun said that NTA should make reforms.
Issuing the interim order, the court said, “The problem of the petitioner arises out of the lawful change of her name and gender. It is the job of the National Testing Agency to make the correction.”
–IANS
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