HC: DM’s certificate valid to change gender in passport

The Allahabad High Court ruled that a district magistrate's certificate confirms a transgender person's gender for passport issuance, without needing further medical proof.

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.

HC: DM’s certificate valid to change gender in 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.

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 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.

The act was enacted to secure dignity, equality, and protection for transgender persons, and its purpose would be defeated if administrative authorities imposed extra statutory hurdles, it said.

The bench further noted that the DM’s certificate gives a “quietus” to the controversy in the case and the petitioner was not required to produce any further documents before the passport authorities. With this, the court quashed the passport authority’s order and disposed of the petition.

Passed after extensive debate in 2019, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act lays down clear guidelines for the issuance of gender certificates. It says that a transgender person may apply to the district magistrate for a certificate with an affidavit declaring their gender. Any such application should be processed within 30 days, according to the rules.

“The district magistrate shall, subject to the correctness of the applicant’s particulars, get the application processed based on the affidavit submitted declaring the gender identity of any person in Form 2, without any medical or physical examination, and thereafter issue an identification number to the applicant, which may be quoted as proof of application,” say the rules, issued in 2020.

For change of gender in the certificate, the procedure was also streamlined.

“If a transgender person undergoes medical intervention towards a gender affirming procedure, either as a male or female, such person may apply in the Form 1, along with a certificate issued to that effect by the medical superintendent or chief medical officer of the medical institution in which that person has undergone the said medical intervention, to the district magistrate for the issue of a revised certificate of identity,” say the rules.

“The certificate of identity issued…shall entitle the applicant to record or change the gender, as well as photograph and name, if so necessitated of transgender person in all such official documents provided in Annexure 1, in accordance with the gender specified in the said certificate of identity as male or female, as the case may be,” the rules add.

Passport is one of the 18 documents – which can be changed on the basis of the district magistrate’s certificate – listed in the rules.