Madras HC Allows Transgender’s Plea to Change Gender in School and College Records

The Madras High Court recently allowed a petition filed by a transgender software engineer, who underwent sex reassignment surgery from female to male, to change the sex as ‘male’ in school and college records. Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana directed the authorities to make the necessary changes within eight weeks.

The Petitioner was born as female,passed out of Anna University with a B.E (computer science and engineering) degree in 2012. He now informed the Court that he had always felt and lived like a man, and hence, soon consulted a doctor regarding the same, pursuant to which, he underwent a sex re-assignment surgery.

After completion of the treatment, he was issued a certificate stating that he was a transgender. He subsequently changed his name and published the same in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette. He had then approached the authorities to change his name and gender in school and college records, but to no avail.

Rapping the authorities for not cooperating with the Petitioner, Justice Sathyanarayana observed, “Merely because the petitioner belongs to the third gender, he or she cannot be made to run from pillar to post on the ground that there are no rules available permitting such changes… The petitioner has also produced sufficient documents to prove his identity and the authorities ought to have considered his application on merits. In fact, the authorities, in the nature of the present case, should readily extend their helping hand rather than denying the same looking down upon them.”