Why Karnataka HC upheld transgender person's plea to change birth certificate

A seven-year pursuit of litigation by a transgender person to effect changes to her birth certificate, so as to reflect her new gender, came to fruition on December 20 when the Karnataka High Court highlighted a lacuna in the law and directed authorities in the state to process her application. While the birth certificate is among the identity documents that can be changed under the Transgender Persons Act, Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act didn’t allow voluntary changes to it. The high court observed that Sub-section of Section 7 in the Transgender Persons Act provides for a certificate to be issued, which in turn would enable such a person to seek a change in name and gender in all identity documents. “When, Sub-sections and provide for both change in gender and change in first name, the concomitants thereof would be issuance of a necessary birth certificate under the relevant provision—in this case, Section 15 of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act,” the high court ruling stated, noting that a revised birth certificate would have to be issued if all the requirements of the Transgender Persons Act are fulfilled. In his order, Justice Suraj Govindaraj said: “Until suitable amendments are made to the Act of 1969 and the rules framed thereunder, it shall be the duty of the Registrar of Births and Deaths to give effect to any certificate issued under Section 6 or 7 of the Transgender Persons Act, 2019, by accepting and processing an application filed by a transgender, if accompanied by certificate under Section 6 or 7 of the Transgender Act, and make such entries in the Register of Births and Deaths and issue necessary birth or death certificate with modification made, indicating both the earlier name and the present name with the details of the certificate under Section 6 or 7 being incorporated in the said certificate.” The order directed the local authorities in Karnataka to process the application of the petitioner within four weeks while also requesting the Karnataka Law Commission to “suggest appropriate amendments to the Act of 1969 and the rules framed thereunder so as to give effect to the Transgender Act in its true letter and spirit, at the earliest”.