New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant an interim stay on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, even as it agreed to examine challenges to the law and sought Centre, all states and Union territories responses on the plea.
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice to Centre and others on the petitions and said that the matter would be placed before a three-judge bench.
The petitions—filed by activists and stakeholders including members of the transgender community—argue that the amendment undermines fundamental rights.
A key concern raised is that the law removes the earlier guarantee of self-perceived gender identity and introduces more restrictive procedures for legal recognition.
According to the petitioners, the amended law replaces the earlier framework—based on an individual’s self-perceived gender identity—with a narrower definition that relies on specified socio-cultural categories and medically verifiable conditions. This shift, they contend, risks excluding many individuals who identify as transgender but do not fit into these prescribed categories.
Petitioners argue that this effectively reintroduces medical scrutiny, which the Supreme Court had earlier rejected as violating dignity, privacy, and personal autonomy.
The pleas further claim that the amendments cause “irreparable constitutional injury” by infringing fundamental rights under Articles 14 (equality), 15 (non-discrimination), 19 (freedoms), and 21 (life and personal liberty). They urge the Court to safeguard the principle of self-determined gender identity as intrinsic to dignity.