A contentious and deeply divisive debate over the difference between sex and gender identity officially landed at India’s Supreme Court last week. A petition filed by the India branch of Women’s Declaration International (WDII) brings to the fore the basic question of identity that is roiling the gender debate in the West.

It argues that sex is binary and cannot be altered through any means—not surgery, not hormones and certainly not self-identification.

It insists that legal recognition of gender identity cannot entitle a person to the constitutional and statutory protections provided to women. Citing examples from Kerala where two transgender women contested panchayat elections for seats reserved for women, the petition raises concerns about recruitment to women-specific posts, participation in women’s sport and also admission to women’s hostels and placement in women’s prisons.

It challenges not just the amendment to the Transgender Act passed by Parliament in March this year, but also the 2019 Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act and even goes back further to the Supreme Court’s landmark 2014 NALSA judgment that recognised the right of transgender people to legal recognition of their gender identity.

On October 28, A three-judge bench of chief justice Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana issued notice to the Centre and tagged the petition with other challenges to the 2026 amendment that are already pending in court.

Senior advocate Amit Sibal who filed the petition on behalf of WDII declined to comment saying the matter was sub........

© hindustantimes