The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard submissions by the Central government seeking transfer of petitions challenging the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 from various High Courts to the top court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought an early listing of the transfer petition before a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi. He suggested that High Courts could be requested to defer proceedings in the meantime.
“We have filed transfer petitions to transfer the challenge to Transgender Amendment Act here in this Court. Can the transfer petition be listed on Friday? If notice also goes, we can ask High Courts to wait,” Mehta submitted.
Responding to this, the Bench flagged that parallel proceedings before High Courts could be beneficial to the top court.
“Sometimes, we can have advantage of High Court view also,” observed CJI Kant.
SG Mehta, however, cautioned that multiple High Courts are seized of the issue and conflicting rulings could emerge.
“There are more than one High Court. There may be divergent views,” said Mehta.
Taking note of the submissions, the Court indicated that it would consider the request.
“We will see,” said CJI Kant.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, which received Presidential assent on March 31, introduces significant changes to the 2019 framework governing the recognition and protection of transgender persons.
It redefines who qualifies as a “transgender person,” while also strengthening penal provisions to address serious offences such as forced gender identity and bodily harm.
The Amendment has drawn criticism from LGBTQIA+ groups and other stakeholders, who argue that the certification requirement undermines dignity, autonomy and privacy. They argue it is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling in National Legal Services Authority v Union of India, which recognised the right to self-identified gender.
Multiple petitions raising these concerns are currently pending before High Courts, including the Delhi High Court and the Kerala High Court, in addition to those before the Supreme Court.
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