Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on plea claiming 2,000 transgenders excluded from NRC in Assam

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Central government on a petition claiming that around 2,000 transgenders were excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam.

A Bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde issued a notice seeking a reply from the Centre.

The petition, filed by Assam's first transgender judge Swati Bidhan, said that NRC was not inclusive of the transgenders and forced them to accept male or female as their gender.

The plea said that most transgenders were abandoned and they do not have documents from before 1971, which is required for the NRC.

The applications did not contain 'others' as a gender category, the plea added.

The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2019, which seeks to provide a mechanism for social, economic and educational empowerment of transgenders, was passed by the Parliament of India on November 26 and received the President's assent on December 5.

The bill defines the expression "transgender person", prohibits discrimination against them, confers the right to self-perceived gender identity and provide that no establishment shall discriminate against them in matters of employment, recruitment, promotion and other related issues.