In a case that has the potential to break the binary gender norms of male and female in law and administrative practices in India, the Supreme Court on 29th October, 2013 reserved its judgment on the question of recognition of identity of transgender persons in India. The initiative followed a petition demanding equal rights and protection to transgender persons, which includes a third category in recording one’s sex/gender in identity documents like the election card, passport, driving license and ration card; and the admission in educational institutions, hospitals, access to toilets, amongst others.
The movement was supported by Senior Advocate and Director, Lawyers Collective, Mr. Anand Grover, who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health. In his intervention Mr. Grover argued that gender shall be understood as a continuum or a range, which is not restricted to the binary of male and female gender alone and which may be different from a person’s biological sex.
