Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury has written to Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of the Congress-led government in Telangana, asking that the State government take a position in the Supreme Court to support the Constitutional challenges to the recently passed amendments to the Transgender Rights law that removed the right to self-identification of gender identity.
The law, passed in Parliament this March, ran into widespread protests from the transgender community across the country and had also led to resignations from members appointed to the Government’s National Council for Transgender Persons over provisions that mandate medical certification of gender identity instead of relying on self-identification.
Change in transgender law cannot take away rights already given, Supreme Court tells Centre Ms.
Chowdhury, whose opposition to the amendments has been vocal, inside and outside Parliament, has now asked the Congress government in Telangana to support the challenges to the amendment that are currently being heard in the Supreme Court of India.
In a letter to Mr.
Reddy, the Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana said, “I would earnestly request the Government of Telangana to extend its support to these proceedings through the office of the Learned Additional Advocate General, Shri Rajnikanth Reddy, by assisting the court in defence of the constitutional rights and dignity of transgender persons.” Trans Amendment Act may disrupt gender-affirmative care, warn health practitioners In addition to this, Ms.
Chowdhury has also requested the Telangana government to “carefully examine the administrative, financial and implementation implications of the new Act” for the State.
She noted that this was needed to look at where the amended Act “may conflict with the State’s existing welfare architecture and its commitment to protecting the rights of transgender persons”.
Ms.
Chowdhury noted in her letter to the Telangana CM that the State has “consistently stood for inclusion, social justice, and constitutional morality, and its intervention at this stage would carry both legal and moral significance.” She also noted that during the debate on the amendments in Rajya Sabha, the Congress party had strongly opposed the legislation on the grounds that it undermined the principles of dignity, equality, and self-identification recognised by the Supreme Court, and “strikes at the heart of the guarantees under Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 of our Constitution”.
At the time the Bill was being introduced and discussed, a delegation of trans activists from across the country had also met with the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi and Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in New Delhi, following which the official account of the Indian National Congress had posted a statement saying that Mr.
Gandhi reiterated that the “Congress party stands firmly with the rights and dignity of transgender persons and will oppose the Bill in Parliament”.
Soon after the amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act were passed, several challenges to it were filed before the Supreme Court of India, which has issued notice in these matters to the Union government.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 17.
