Another petition challenging the validity of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 has been filed before the Supreme Court.
The apex Court, on Friday, issued notice on the same while tagging it with a similar plea.Notice was issued by a Bench of CJI SA Bobde with Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy on the plea filed by some members of the transgender community, which has now been tagged the case moved earlier by Assam’s first transgender Judge, Swati Bidhan Baruah.
The petition stated, that while the 2019 Act was enacted to protect the rights of the transgender community, it in fact violates the fundamental rights of transgender persons. The Act which received the President’s assent in December 2019 goes against the legal principles laid down by the Supreme Court in the 2014 NALSA case as well as the case Navtej Singh Johar, apart from violating the right to privacy which was declared a fundamental right in the KS Puttaswamy judgment.
It is argued that Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 12(3), 18(a) and 18(d) of the 2019 Act violate the fundamental rights of life, liberty, privacy, autonomy and dignity guaranteed by the Constitution. Therefore, it is contended these provisions should be declared ultra vires Part III of the Constitution.
It was held in NALSA Supreme court judgement that no unequivocal terms by the Supreme Court that the right to identify one’s gender and sexual orientation is integral to their personality and their basic rights and that nobody shall be forced to undergo any medical procedure as a requirement for legal recognition of this identity. This aspect is contradicted by the 2019 Act which requires transgender persons to undergo medical surgery to identify with a gender they choose, the petition points out.
It also highlighted in the plea the provisions in the Act are in direct contravention of the legal principles identified and laid down by the Supreme Court, particularly in the NALSA judgment. Therefore, the Constitutional validity of these provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act have been challenged before the Court.
This petition was filed though Advocate Anandita Pujari. Senior Counsel Jayna Kothari represented the petitioners before the Court.
