Transgenders get right to inherit agricultural land in Uttar Pradesh

Transgenders in Uttar Pradesh will soon get to inherit ancestral agricultural land as the Yogi Adityanath-led state government has cleared an amendment to the UP Revenue Code of 2006.

A revenue department officer said the state cabinet earlier this week cleared an amendment to the UP Revenue Code of 2006 for inclusion of third gender in the nomenclature. Previous mentions were limited to “sons, daughters, married, unmarried and widow”. It will become law once the legislature passes it. The bill is likely to be tabled in the state legislature on Friday, he said.

In March last year, the officer said, the state law commission, in a proposal submitted to the state government, had raised the demand for a law acknowledging the inheritance rights of the ‘third gender’. Justice AN Mittal, chairman of the state law commission, had drawn the attention of the state government toward the inheritance laws that left out the transgender.

After the amendment, the third gender will have succession and physical rights to the property. The amendments have been made in the section 4 (10), 108 (2), 109 and 110 of the UP Revenue Code (Amendment) Act, 2020, to give the transgender succession and physical rights to the property, the Revenue Department officer said.

The rights to inherit the ancestral property will not only protect the third genders from social ostracism but will also give them equal rights in the society, the officer said.