The Kerala High Court told the National Testing Agency (NTA) to correct a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) certificate for transgender scholar Rithisha Rithu so that it shows her legally‑recognised name. The order is an interim one and will apply for two weeks while the NTA updates the record.
Justice V.G. Arun issued the order after Rithu filed a petition. She is the first transgender woman in Kerala to be admitted to a PhD programme. Her JRF money was blocked because the name on her fellowship certificate did not match the name on her bank account.
Rithu had legally changed her gender and name in January 2023, when the district magistrate gave her a Form 3 certificate under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. In May 2024 she took the UGC‑NET exam, organised by the NTA, but entered her old name on the form while noting her gender as transgender/third gender, as her academic records and Aadhaar were still pending update.
She cleared the exam in December 2024 and qualified for JRF. After gaining admission to a PhD program in Social Work, she opened a bank account under her self‑identified name to receive the fellowship through the UGC’s Scholarship and Fellowship Management Portal (SFMP). However, Canara Bank refused to link the account, citing a “beneficiary name mismatch,” and the fellowship could not be released.
Rithu argued that denying her JRF funds violated her fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution, and Sections 3–8 of the Transgender Persons Act. She asked the court to order the UGC, NTA and the bank to fix the records, release the fellowship and award ₹25,000 for litigation costs.
During the hearing, the court noted confusion over which agency should correct the certificate. Justice Arun clarified that the NTA is responsible. “Her problem stems from the lawful change of name and gender. It is the NTA that must carry out the correction,” the judge said, issuing the interim order.
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