A Supreme Court-appointed advisory committee on Wednesday wrote to Union Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar, requesting that the 2026 Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Amendment Bill be withdrawn, media reported.
The chairperson of the committee, former Delhi High Court judge Justice Asha Menon, confirmed this to the newspaper.
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday and in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. It will now be forwarded to the President Droupadi Murmu for her assent.
Transgender, intersex and gender-diverse organisations have been protesting against the bill, stating that the proposed changes remove the protections guaranteed under the 2019 Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act.
The proposed amendments centre on redefining who qualifies as a transgender person.
The bill removes transgender persons’ right to a self-perceived gender identity and limits the law’s scope to those with certain biological or physiological characteristics, intersex variations, or specific socio-cultural identities such as kinner, hijra, aravani and jogta.
If it receives the presidential assent, transgender men, transgender women and genderqueer persons, who were recognised under the 2019 law, will be excluded from the definition of “transgender person”.
The bill was cleared in Parliament amid protests by the Opposition MPs who argued that it violates constitutional rights.
The advisory committee was constituted by the Supreme Court in October 2025 while hearing a matter involving a transgender woman who was terminated from employment as a teacher by private schools in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat because of her gender identity, The Indian Express reported.
The court had noted the inaction by the administration in implementing the 2019 Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act and formed the expert panel to identify statutory gaps, draft a comprehensive equal opportunity policy and recommend measures for the “reasonable accommodation” of transgender persons so that they can participate equally in society, the newspaper reported.
Source: Scroll