Breaking: Bombay High Court Orders Maha Govt To Direct Educational Institutions To Enable Retrospective Name & Gender Change For Transgender Persons

The Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra Government to issue directions to all educational institutions in the state to enable retrospective name and gender change for transgender persons in their records.

A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale observed that educational institutions should have a form on their websites for precisely such changes, i.e., noting a change in name and a change in gender.

The court disposed of the plea of an alumni from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) who sought changes in their records with the institute and re-issuance of their education documents and degree certificate with their new name and gender.

"This is a case of a denial of a human being’s self-identity and self-identification. That cannot be done and cannot be permitted. Nor can an institute be permitted to force upon the Petitioner a name, identity or a gender that the Petitioner has chosen to reject in preference to some other," the bench observed.

In the order, the bench took strong exception to TISS's condition that the petitioner first change their name in all previous records. It ordered the institute to make the required changes immediately and issue documents to the petitioner. This would enable the petitioner to apply for LLB course with a new name and identity.

Refusing the petitioner relief would be a "manifest injustice" and a "complete denial of fundamental rights including the right to privacy and the right to dignity, covered by Article 21 of the Constitution of India," the court said.

"The approach…simply wrong. It fails to recognize that questions of identity, self-identification and gender perception do not happen at a biologically definable point in time. These are matters of self-realisation without predictable time frames," the bench said.

It added that every transgender person who desires a name change need not be put through the additional trauma of having to get reissued every single document from birth onwards.

"What is required is a recognition and acknowledgment of the rights that the Petitioner invokes. The insistence by the 1st Respondent on getting other records changed and on a production of previous documents is not merely obstructive. To our mind, it is in and of itself nothing short of a denial of the Petitioner’s fundamental rights under Article 21."

In the plea filed through Advocate Rebecca Gonsalves the petitioner said they had graduated from TISS with an MA in Development Studies in 2013. Born as a girl, in 2015 the petitioner adopted another name, selfidentifying as transgender. Petitioner even filed a petition in 2019 seeking publication of the name change in the gazette, which was allowed.

The petitioner desired to study law and therefore appraoched TISS on January 6, 2023 for re-issuance of documents with the changed name and gender. After the institute sought a host of documents, the petitioner approached the Bombay High Court.

Relying on the famous NALSA judgement the High Court observed that it directed towards greater inclusiveness and acceptance of individuality and individual traits. "These are not to be compromised because of some bureaucratic requirements."

"It is for the 1st Respondent (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) to make this change on the 1st Respondent’s website (provide a form for name and gender change) and for the 2nd Respondent State Government to issue the necessary instructions to all similar educational institutions across Maharashtra," the court observed.

Case Title: X vs Dean

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