BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 104 of 143

Correct — C, Sub-Inspector of Police. The Bihar Police Sub-Inspector examination result was declared on Tuesday 9 July 2024, and Manvi Madhu Kashyap's name was on the final list. ANI reported the next day, in terms that answer this stem directly: 'For the first time Bihar has appointed a transgender person Manvi Madhu Kashyap as a Sub-Inspector of Police.' The Times of India went further on 10 July 2024 and called her the country's first, not merely the state's — 'Manvi Madhu Kashyap becomes India's first-ever transwoman sub-inspector' — and the same TOI report records that the Bihar Police appointed three transgender persons as sub-inspectors in that result, two trans men and one trans woman. So the paper's phrasing is a conservative version of what happened: she was Bihar's first, and by the account of national reporting India's first, transgender woman to reach the rank. Speaking to ANI she described being turned away from institutions that told her she 'would hamper the environment', and thanked the Chief Minister and the teachers who eventually admitted her. The appointment did not come out of nowhere. Its legal foundation is the Supreme Court's judgment in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India, delivered on 15 April 2014 by Justices K. S. Radhakrishnan and A. K. Sikri, which recognised transgender persons as a third gender, held that a person may declare a self-perceived gender identity without undergoing surgery, and directed the Centre and the States to treat the community as socially and educationally backward and extend reservation in educational institutions and public appointments. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 — Act No. 40 of 2019, in force from 10 January 2020 — then made discrimination in employment a statutory wrong. What the 2024 Bihar Police result shows is one of those directions finally producing an appointment letter, which is why a current-affairs paper picked it up.

• (a)Bus Driver in state transport — Wrong post and wrong employer. Drivers in a state road transport undertaking are recruited by that corporation under its own rules; a Sub-Inspector is recruited by the state's police services commission through a written examination and physical test. Transgender persons have taken up transport jobs elsewhere in India and those are genuine firsts, but they are not this one — and confusing the two is exactly what the option is there to encourage.
• (b)Havildar in Bihar Regiment — The Bihar Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army, a Union armed force, and havildar is an Army non-commissioned rank. No state government or state services commission appoints anyone to it, so a 'Bihar's first' in that rank could not be a Bihar Police story at all. The option works only on the shared word 'Bihar'.
• (d)Traffic Police Inspector — The rank is wrong, and it is wrong upwards. In the Indian police hierarchy the order runs Constable, Head Constable, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Inspector — so an Inspector is senior to a Sub-Inspector, and direct recruitment through this examination was to Sub-Inspector. 'Traffic' is in any case a wing or posting rather than a separate recruitment cadre.

Indian law on gender identity moved in two steps, and it is the gap between them that this appointment closes. The first step was judicial: in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court declared transgender people a third gender, held that Part III fundamental rights apply to them equally, upheld the right to self-identify as male, female or third gender without sex reassignment surgery, and directed governments to treat the community as socially and educationally backward and to extend reservation in education and public appointments. The second step was legislative: the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, passed by the Lok Sabha on 5 August 2019 and the Rajya Sabha on 26 November 2019 and in force from 10 January 2020, prohibits discrimination against transgender persons in employment, education, healthcare and access to public services. Critics of the Act point out that it did not carry over the NALSA direction on reservation, which is why progress in public employment has depended on individual states acting on the judgment rather than on the statute. A recruitment result in which a state police force appoints transgender sub-inspectors is therefore a measurable event, not a symbolic one.

Two of the four options can be eliminated without knowing anything about the news item, purely on who does the appointing. A havildar in the Bihar Regiment is appointed by the Indian Army, a Union force whose recruitment has nothing to do with the Bihar government, so 'Bihar's first' cannot sensibly attach to it. A bus driver in state transport is appointed by a transport corporation, an entirely separate recruiting channel from a police services commission. That leaves two police options, and they are separated by rank rather than by fact: Sub-Inspector is the rank filled by open direct recruitment through a state police commission's written and physical examination, while Inspector sits one step above it and is normally reached by promotion. A candidate who remembers only that 'she joined the police' will be pulled towards the more senior-sounding option, and that is the trap. The general lesson for BPSC's current-affairs section is that these questions are usually decided by a precise noun — a rank, a post, a designation — rather than by the broad shape of the story, so it is worth fixing the exact title in memory when a Bihar 'first' is reported.

• The Bihar Police Sub-Inspector examination result was declared on Tuesday 9 July 2024, and Manvi Madhu Kashyap's name appeared in the final list
• The Times of India of 10 July 2024 headlined her as India's first-ever transwoman sub-inspector, and reported that Bihar Police appointed three transgender persons as sub-inspectors in the same result — two trans men and one trans woman
• National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India was decided on 15 April 2014 by Justices K. S. Radhakrishnan and A. K. Sikri: third-gender recognition, self-identification without surgery, and a direction to extend reservation in education and public appointments
• The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 (Act No. 40 of 2019) was passed by the Lok Sabha on 5 August 2019 and the Rajya Sabha on 26 November 2019, assented on 5 December 2019 and came into force on 10 January 2020
• Police rank order below the gazetted ranks: Constable, Head Constable, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Inspector — so an Inspector is senior to a Sub-Inspector
• The Bihar Police Academy, the state's training institution for police officers, has its new campus at Rajgir in Nalanda district

• Choosing the senior-sounding rank — Inspector is above Sub-Inspector, and the 2024 recruitment was to Sub-Inspector
• Attaching a state 'first' to the Bihar Regiment, which is an Indian Army formation and not recruited by the state at all
• Assuming the 2019 Act provided reservation for transgender persons; the reservation direction came from the 2014 NALSA judgment and was not carried into the statute

BPSC's current-affairs block leans heavily on Bihar 'firsts' — first transgender officer, first woman in a named post, first project of its kind in the state — and the answer always turns on the exact designation, which is why the distractor set here is four different job titles rather than four different names. UPSC does not ask personalities of this kind; it takes the same subject constitutionally, through the NALSA judgment, through the 2019 Act's provisions, or through statement pairs on equality and non-discrimination.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Supreme Court judgment that recognised transgender persons as a 'third gender' and directed reservation in education and public appointments is

  • (a)Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India (2018)
  • (b)National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014)
  • (c)Justice K. S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India (2017)
  • (d)Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992)

  Answer(b) National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) — decided on 15 April 2014; Navtej Singh Johar read down Section 377, Puttaswamy concerned privacy, and Indra Sawhney dealt with OBC reservation.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In the Indian police hierarchy, which rank is immediately senior to a Sub-Inspector ?

  • (a)Assistant Sub-Inspector
  • (b)Head Constable
  • (c)Inspector
  • (d)Deputy Superintendent of Police

  Answer(c) Inspector — the order runs Constable, Head Constable, Assistant Sub-Inspector, Sub-Inspector, Inspector, with Deputy Superintendent of Police above that as the first gazetted rank.