Lucknow/New Delhi, April 28 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow Bench has dismissed a writ petition filed by a member of the transgender (Kinnar) community seeking judicial protection and territorial demarcation of customary “badhai” or “jajmani” rights in Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district, holding that no person can claim a legal or fundamental right to collect money from individuals without sanction of law.
A Division Bench of Justices Alok Mathur and Amitabh Kumar Rai refused to grant relief to petitioner Rekha Devi, who had sought directions for declaring exclusive territorial jurisdiction for the collection of badhai from Kati ka Pul in Jarwal town to Ghaghra Ghat and up to Saryu Bridge in Colonelganj to avoid violent disputes within the community.
The petitioner argued that members of the Kinnar community had traditionally exercised customary rights to collect badhai on auspicious occasions and that overlapping territorial claims among different groups had triggered violent clashes, including murderous assaults and grievous injuries.
Rejecting the plea, the Allahabad High Court held that such claimed customary rights cannot be legitimised in the absence of any statutory backing.
“Needless to say, there is no legitimate or legal backing permitting any person or individual from collecting / extracting any money, tax, fee or cess from any individual except in accordance with law. Such rights as sought by the petitioner are not recognized by law, and accordingly, the courts in their power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India cannot legitimize the acts of the petitioner without there being any backing of law,” the Justice Mathur-led Bench said.
It further observed that the extraction of money from citizens, whether voluntary or otherwise, cannot be judicially protected outside the framework of law.
“Extraction of money from any individual willfully or otherwise cannot be permitted to be made, and any citizen of this country can be directed to pay only such amounts of tax, cess or fee which can be legitimately extracted from such individuals in accordance with law,” the order stated.
The Allahabad High Court also recorded that neither the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, nor any existing legal framework recognises or safeguards such territorial jajmani claims.
Observing that granting such relief would effectively legitimise extortion or illegal monetary extraction, the Justice Mathur-led Bench cautioned that judicial indulgence in such matters could create precedent for similar claims by unlawful groups.
“In case any indulgence is shown in the respect of the petitioner, there may be several other persons / gangs which may be operating and making illegal extraction / extortion from individuals, and such illegal extraction has never been sanctioned by law in this country and such extraction is an offence under the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita,” the Allahabad HC held, dismissing the writ petition as devoid of merit.
–IANS
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