Trans rights safeguards pose practical issues, govt tells Supreme Court

The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that considering protective provisions for transgender people’s rights can throw up practical challenges, with trans women accessing benefits and asserting rights otherwise available to biological women under various statutes.

With the validity of Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 separately being challenged before the top court, solicitor- general Tushar Mehta said that he will address this concern among others in the Centre’s affidavit responding to a batch of petitions challenging the law’s validity on multiple grounds. “My reply is getting ready. I will reply on this aspect too,” Mehta said.

The concerns were brought before the court on Wednesday in a fresh petition by the India chapter of a women’s organisation called Women’s Declaration International, which said that while transgenders have a right to their identity, they should not be allowed to encroach into the constitutional and statutory benefits available to biological women.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant agreed to hear the matter and asked senior advocate Akhil Sibal, appearing for the petitioner along with advocate Binsy Susan, to serve a copy of the petition to the solicitor- general. “The matter is sub-judice before us. We do not wish to add another aspect to it. But your perspective is different. According to you, if somebody is a transgender woman, that person should not have the same status as a biological female,” said the bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said.

Mehta said that several high courts are now faced with the question of whether a man claiming to have the sexual identity of a woman should be allowed to participate in sporting events as a female contestant. The question also arose in jails, wherein if a man identifies as a female, if he is to be kept in a women’s jail. Even under the penal statutes, arresting a woman after sunset is not permissible. This question will be raised with regard to trans women. Also, Mehta added that trans people may insist on being frisked only by female police personnel.

Sibal said that even the Constitution reserves seats for women in Panchayats which cannot be encroached upon by trans women. “The Act makes provisions for transgenders. At the same time, there are constitutional and statutory benefits promised to biological females. The question is whether those rights and protections can be encroached upon by transgender persons,” he said. He added that while the petitioner supported the right of transgenders to be identified as the third sex with equal rights available to any person, the implications of the rights that flowed from such identification needed to be determined.