Is State mooting law on gender recognition after sex change surgery? Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court recently sought a response from the State on whether it was considering passing any legislation or rules to determine the gender of individuals who undergo gender affirmation surgery or sex reassignment surgery..The Court was dealing with a petition by a transman (petitioner) who wished to update his name, gender and other details in his school records after he underwent female to male (FTM) mastectomy surgery.The case had earlier prompted the Court to question of whether there were any rules in place on such matters, although it also directed the authorities to expeditiously consider the petitioner's application to update his school records. Similar questions were raised by Justice Alok Mathur on August 31 as well.The Court observed that it is up to the government (Central or State) to determine whether a person is liable to be considered male merely on account of a FTM mastectomy surgery (female to male)."What would be the the factors would determine the gender of the petitioner whether the presence of XX / XY chromosomes or any individual organ of the body which would determine the gender of an individual has to be considered and provided either by the legislature or by the Government by promulgating any enactment or rules," the Court added. .The Court further observed that it can only direct authorities to comply with existing laws. The Court questioned if it would have the power to determine an individual's gender in the absence of any specific legislation or rules.The Court proceeded to direct the State to inform whether it is willing to introduce a law on this issue. "Learned Standing Counsel is direction to inform this Court as to whether the State is contemplating passing any legislation or rules in this regard or not," the Court ordered..The petitioner before the Court had informed that he voluntarily underwent a surgery to affirm his gender as male.He changed his name to Vedant Maurya and this change was reflected in the government of India's Gazette last year.Following this, the petitioner applied to the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Prayagraj, to update their records but nothing was done. Therefore, he approached the High Court seeking a direction to update his records.The State counsel had not objected to the prayer made by the petitioner. Therefore, on August 5, the Court ordered the State Board, Prayagraj, to consider and decide on the petitioner’s application for a change of details in his records expeditiously, within four weeks.The case is listed next on September 18. Advocates Anurag Narain Srivastava, Pawan Kumar Verma and Vartika Pandey appeared for the petitioner.[Read Order]