New Delhi, December 19: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Centre on a petition seeking treatment of inter-sex persons as a “separate class”.

The notice by a Division Bench led by Justice T S Thakur followed a petition filed by Rahul Verma, an office-bearer of a Delhi-based support group called ‘caremycolostomy’, highlighting the case of a 22-year-old constable with the CISF whose service was terminated for “ambiguous genitalia”.

The court has sought a reply from the Centre and Health Ministry on a submission by Verma if any guidelines could be framed to protect the rights of inter-sex persons. The petition calls for “guidelines to treat inter-sex people as a separate class duly accepted socially or otherwise. To not discriminate, ignore or neglect the inter-sex people, who are already living in a particular condition”.

Directing the Government to file its reply by May 3, 2008, the court took into consideration Verma’s submission to “create/provide job opportunities to inter-sex people in those classes of jobs in which sex is not a factor related to the nature of any particular job”.

Former CISF constable Sanju Behra, who was taken in the CISF under the women’s category, was sent AIIMS for a medical check-up within six months. Behra’s school and graduation records also mention the gender as female.

She was subsequently terminated from service on the ground that she was inducted as a “female constable” and job specifications of both genders differ.