According to the Centre, this Supreme Court ruling indicates that such specific certificates issued by a District Magistrate within the framework of the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act, 2019 is valid.
In its application before the Supreme Court, the Centre has made it clear that, inter alia, a ‘certificate of identity’ approved by a District Magistrate refers to that which is acceptable as valid documentation for applying for a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card.
This request in principle has been accepted by the Union of India and the Union government may also attempt to incorporate it in the rules for the sake of clarity: a bench of justices Sudhanshu Dhulia And Ahsanuddin Amanullah were recorded to have said.
“We appreciated that throughout the life of this petition, Union of India has been very cordial and responsive to the most issues raised in this petition including the paragraph suggesting that certificate to be issued under Section 6/7 of the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act in 2019, will be acceptable if given by the district magistrate. The bench observed,” Thank you very much.
In provisions seven through nine, the Act talks about the aspects of providing a certificate of a gender and a change of gender. It specifically addressed an issue in regard to a transgender who had made a PAN/Aadhaar linking request that failed because the former did not have ‘third gender’ inclusion, which the latter did.
Reshma Prasad, a Bihar based social worker, had approached the Centre to create a separate column in the PAN card for the third gender as it is essential to link the PAN card with an Aadhar- a requirement for her to obtain proof of accurate identity.
Ms. Prasad had stated that PAN was acquired by her in 2012 under male gender identity and she has been filing tax returns for the year 2015-16 and 2016-2017 under male category.
There is a third gender category also in the Aadhaar which she said was introduced after an apex court order and hence she filled the same as a transgender while taking the Aadhaar.
