Enable retrospective name, gender change for transgender people: Bombay HC to education groups

The Bombay High Court, in a significant order, has directed the Maharashtra government to issue directions to all educational institutions to enable retrospective name and gender change for transgender persons in their records. A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale said that educational institutions should have a form on their websites for such changes.

The HC passed the order while hearing a petition filed by a Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) alumnus, who sought changes in their records and re-issuance of their education documents and degree certificates.

The bench noted, “This is a case of a denial of a human being’s self-identity and self-identification. That cannot be done and cannot be permitted. Nor can an institute be permitted to force upon the petitioner a name, identity or a gender that the petitioner has chosen to reject in preference to some other.”

'Recognition and acknowledgment' of rights required

Expressing displeasure over the condition specified by TISS that the petitioners change their name in all previous records, the court directed it to make the necessary changes immediately and issue changed documents. This would enable the petitioner to apply for an LLB course with a new name and identity.

The bench said, every transgender person who desires a name change need not be put through the additional trauma of having to get reissued every single document from birth onwards, said the bench. “What is required is a recognition and acknowledgment of the rights that the petitioner invokes.”

According to the petition, filed through advocate Rebecca Gonsalves, the petitioner said they had graduated from TISS with an MA in Development Studies in 2013. Born as a girl, in 2015 the petitioner adopted another name, self-identifying as transgender. In 2019, the petitioner filed a petition seeking publication of the name change in the gazette, which was permitted. Desirous to study law, the petitioner approached TISS on January 6 this year, for re-issuance of documents with the changed name and gender.