Today, the Supreme Court of India said that the transgender community can't be considered a separate caste.

The Supreme Court's remark came during a hearing in response to a petition challenging the Bihar government's choice to classify the transgender community as a distinct group within the caste list, rather than as an independent caste.

The bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna held that the Bihar government has provided a separate column for transgenders in the list so their data would be available to the State.

"Transgender is never a caste. This has been taken care of. There are now 3 columns - male, female, and transgender. So data will be available," the bench said.

The Supreme Court emphasized that transgender individuals should be entitled to specific privileges as the third gender but should not be categorized as a distinct caste.

"What you are wanting really is that transgender persons be treated as a separate caste. That may not be possible. They can be treated separately and conferred certain benefits, but not as a caste. Because there will be transgender persons from across the board - from different castes," the Supreme Court said.

Facts - 

Bihar has achieved the distinction of being the first state to publish data from a caste-based survey. The report reveals that 36 percent of the population belongs to the Extremely Backward Classes, 27% falls under the Backward Classes category, 19.7% is from Scheduled Castes, and 1.7% is from Scheduled Tribes. The remaining 15.5 percent constitutes the general population. Notably, the state's overall population stands at over 13.1 crore.

Earlier in August, following the completion of the survey, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar emphasized that the exercise would prove to be "advantageous for all" and would facilitate the development of various segments of society, especially those who have been historically disadvantaged.

The decision to conduct a caste survey was taken by the Bihar government in June last year.