Feminist, lawyer alliances urge MPs to withdraw Transgender Rights Amendment Bill

By A Representative 

In a significant development just days after its introduction in Parliament, over 100 members of two national alliances—the All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and the National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR)—have issued an open appeal to all Members of Parliament (MPs) to immediately withdraw the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026.

The Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha on March 13 by Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar, has sparked intense opposition from civil society groups who argue it is "unconstitutional" and reverses a decade of legal progress for transgender rights in India.

In their joint submission, the signatories expressed "grave concerns" over the proposed legislation, stating that it violates constitutional rights and was introduced without "empirical backing or due consultations with the transgender community or even the National Council for Transgender Persons."

The core of the opposition rests on the Bill's departure from the landmark NALSA judgment of 2014, in which the Supreme Court held that the right to self-identification of one’s gender is a fundamental right. The court had ruled that this right requires no medical or surgical procedure.

"The Amendment Bill proposes to withdraw legal recognition based on this constitutional guarantee to live as one’s self-identified gender and perpetuates harmful social stigmas around transgender persons," the letter states. "The Bill thus turns the wheel back, on the progress made since a decade of the NALSA judgement in a retrograde manner."

The alliances have presented a detailed, clause-by-clause critique of the Amendment Bill, highlighting six primary objections:

1. A Narrowed Definition: The Bill substitutes the existing definition of "transgender person" to exclude trans men, trans women, and non-binary individuals who do not carry a specific medical diagnosis or belong to named socio-cultural communities.

2. De-recognition of Self-Perception: It omits the provision guaranteeing the right to self-perceived gender identity, contradicting the constitutional guarantee upheld by the Supreme Court.

3. Medical Gatekeeping: The Bill introduces a medical board whose recommendation is required for identity certification—a mechanism that the Supreme Court had explicitly rejected in the NALSA judgment.

4. Exclusion of the Vulnerable: The amendments are expected to place social and legal protections beyond the reach of the most marginalized transgender persons, who often struggle to access medical and administrative systems.

5. Criminalization of Support Systems: New penal provisions that criminalize compelling someone to "outwardly present a transgender identity" risk being used against transgender communities and their support networks.

6. Unaddressed Drawbacks: The Amendment fails to address existing deficiencies in the 2019 Act, such as the lack of reservations in education and employment and the absence of protections for chosen families.

"Transgender persons in India have held their hard-won right to legal recognition of their self-identified gender identity for over ten years," the appeal noted. "The Amendment Bill proposes to remove that recognition, not on account of any demonstrated failure of the existing framework, but on the basis that the Government considers their identities insufficiently grounded in biology or socio-cultural tradition to warrant protection."

The groups have called upon MPs to ensure five key actions: the immediate withdrawal of the Bill; its referral to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment for a comprehensive review; detailed investigations with testimonies from the transgender community; inclusive consultations reflecting the diversity of the community; and due consideration of the existing drawbacks of the 2019 Act as highlighted in the Supreme Court's recent judgment in Jane Kaushik v. Union of India (2025).

"The Amendment Bill, 2026 does not represent our collective will as citizens of this country and threatens the hard-won feminist, social justice fight and rights for equal citizenship; constitutional parity and bodily autonomy for all," the signatories stated.

The appeal comes as thousands of transgender persons have been protesting the Bill across India for the past week. The joint submission was endorsed by a wide range of activists, lawyers, and academics from across the country, including Meena Saraswathi Seshu, Grace Banu, and Chayanika Shah.

ALIFA is described as a collective of feminist, grassroots organizations and individuals, while NAJAR is a forum of progressive lawyers and legal professionals for democratic causes. The groups have urged MPs and their political parties to ensure the withdrawal of what they call a "draconian Bill."