DM's certificate enough to prove trans person's gender identity for passport: Allahabad HC

The passport authority’s direction requiring a fresh medical examination from its empanelled clinic was contrary to the scheme of the act and rules, it said.

The Allahabad high court has held that a certificate issued by the district magistrate under Section 7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 constitutes conclusive proof of a transgender person’s gender and identity for the purpose of passport.

The court ruled that once such a certificate was granted, passport authorities cannot insist on a fresh medical examination or impose any additional requirements to verify an applicant’s gender. (HT_PRINT)

The court ruled that once such a certificate was granted, passport authorities cannot insist on a fresh medical examination or impose any additional requirements to verify an applicant’s gender.

In an order passed on February 10, a bench of justices Atul Sreedharan and Siddharth Nandan said that once a transgender person has obtained a certificate of identity under Sections 5 and 6 of the Transgender Persons Act, and thereafter secured a revised certificate under Section 7 following gender-affirming surgery, the authorities are bound to recognise that certificate. They cannot ask for changes to be made in the birth certificate or for a fresh medical test, the court said.

The court passed the order while hearing a petition filed by an individual named Khush R Goel. Upon turning 18, Goel underwent gender affirming surgery and identified as male after the procedure. Goel had applied for a change of gender certificate and a district magistrate issued a document, certifying Goel as male.

But when Goel applied for a change of gender in the passport, the passport office directed him to undergo a fresh medical examination and sought changes in his birth certificate, prompting him to approach the high court seeking quashing of that order and recognition of his statutory certificate as sufficient proof of identity and gender.

The court noted that petitioner had complied with the statutory framework, and the district magistrate had issued a revised identity certificate recording his gender as male. The passport authority’s direction requiring a fresh medical examination from its empanelled clinic was contrary to the scheme of the act and rules, it said.

“We find that the impugned order is in violation of the special act and the certification issued under the special act. In this regard, the statement of objects and reasons of the said act reveal in clause (F) that no establishment shall discriminate against transgender persons in the matter relating to employment, recruitment, promotion and other related issues,” the high court said.

The bench held that such a demand lacked any legal foundation because the statute already prescribes a complete mechanism for recognition of gender identity. Once the district magistrate has issued the revised certificate after due verification, no further medical scrutiny can be insisted upon by another authority.

The court also clarified that “official documents” under the certificate necessarily include a passport, which is a sovereign function of the State. Therefore, the passport authority could not compel the petitioner to first amend his birth certificate or produce additional documents beyond those mandated under the special statute. With this, the court quashed the passport authority’s order and disposed of the petition.