File photo: - A pride flag is held during an LGBTQ+ Pride March
NEW DELHI: Striking a discordant note among a clutch of petitions challenging the Transgender Amendment Act for denying right to gender self-determination, an all-women NGO Wednesday appealed to the Supreme Court not to confer trans-women, biological males identifying as females, the spectrum of constitutional rights guaranteed to biological women.‘Women’s Declaration International India’ through senior advocate Amit Sibal told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that “self-professed or socio-cultural gender identity or certificate or document cannot change a person’s biological sex or enable a biological male to access the entire spectrum of rights, protections and entitlements created specifically for biological females.” Differentiating between sex and gender, the petitioner said, “Sex and gender identity are distinct; gender identity concerns a person’s deeply felt internal experience, while sex is the stable immutable biological category on which numerous constitutional and statutory protections for women are premised.”SC asked Centre to respond to the petition with a comprehensive affidavit that also dealt with the other petitions challenging the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026.
SG Tushar Mehta said a comprehensive affidavit is being drafted but gave an indication of what would be govt’s stand in defence of the erasure of gender self-determination clause, which was replaced by medically determined gender.He asked: “Can a transwoman be permitted to compete in a sporting event for women? Should a policewoman conduct physical search of a person with male genitals but perceives himself to be a woman? If a biologically male criminal perceives himself to be a woman, should police be barred from arresting him after sunset?”
Drawing the court’s attention to a recent incident in the US relating to a transgender inmate, who perceives himself to be a woman but impregnated two women inmates, Mehta said several aspects needed to be kept in mind while adjudicating the petitions.A male becoming a trans-woman will violate affirmative measures for women under the Constitution, equal opportunity to women in employment, women’s bodily privacy and personal security in sex-segregated spaces and criminal law safeguards, the petitioner said.