2 weeks ago
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The Centre urged the Supreme Court connected Wednesday (May 27, 2026) to transportation petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 from astir 4 antithetic High Courts to the apex court.
Appearing earlier a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Solicitor General Tishar Mehta said the High Court are returning to enactment from summertime recess successful the archetypal week of June.
The Supreme Court is already seized of respective petitions challenging the 2026 Act, but it is is lone partially moving during June. Mr. Mehta, appearing for the Union government, said the High Courts whitethorn pre-empt the apex tribunal by separately taking up the petitions earlier them and walk order.
Mr. Mehta said the apex tribunal should displacement the cases pending successful these High Courts to itself successful bid to debar “divergent views” connected the aforesaid Act.
The apical instrumentality serviceman urged the Chief Justice to database the Union government’s plea for transferring these petitions to itself connected May 29.
“We volition see,” Chief Justice Kant said successful response.
The petitions successful the apex tribunal person criticised the arguable 2026 instrumentality of removing the close to self-identity. The 2026 Act requires a government-appointed aesculapian board’s favourable proposal for a District Magistrate to certify idiosyncratic arsenic a transgender person.
The petitioners, including activists similar Laxminarayan Tripathi and others, said the Act disregarded transgender individuality arsenic an “authentic quality identity, freely chosen”.
They person argued that the request for a aesculapian certification for sex designation violated the rights of transgender persons and amounts to “medical gatekeeping” by the state.
The authorities had countered that the volition of the Act was to guarantee that deserving radical from the assemblage get benefits. He said forcible enactment alteration was criminalised.
The Transgender Persons Amendment Bill and the question of identity
The petitioners highlighted that the Act had abruptly stopped ongoing sex-change therapies and treatment, leaving galore successful the assemblage successful dire straits.
The petitions person argued that the 2026 amendments propulsion the carpet from nether the 2014 NALSA judgement that declared that the close to self-identity was a cardinal right. It had held that individuality was determined by the person, and not by biology, commencement duty oregon done authorities verification. Section 3 of the 2026 Act has omitted the close to self-perceived sex Identity.
