The Madras High Court has sought the response of the Centre by December 12 to a public interest litigation petition challenging the insistence of Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) certificates from those who apply for making changes in the column meant for mentioning the sex of a person in his/her passport.
The petitioner said, such insistence was clearly unconstitutional and in violation of every individual’s fundamental right to life and personal liberty.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and N. Seshasayee ordered notice to the Union Ministry of External Affairs Ministry and clubbed the PIL petition filed by T.D. Sivakumar along with another similar petition that was already pending in the court. The other case had been filed by transgender activist Grace Banu Ganesan, 29, of Chennai seeking horizontal reservations in education and employment for transgender and intersex persons.
In that case too, an objection had been raised with regard to the transgender and intersex persons being subjected to physical examination before enrolling them as members of a welfare board instituted by the government.
The petitioner’s counsel had contended that the choice of mentioning the sex should be given to the individuals concerned and they should not be made to undergo the rigors of physical examination by a team of doctors.
Physical examination
During the course of hearing of that case, the judges had sought for an explanation from the State government as to why such physical examination had been made mandatory while entertaining applications from the transgender.
In the present case too, Mr. Sivakumar, an LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer) activist, said, the insistence on SRS certificates had been held to be illegal by the Supreme Court in a recent verdict.
Further, the need for such certificates had been dispensed with by many countries when it came to issuing passports, he added.
