Create Gender Neutral Column In Birth Certificate Of A Child Born To Transgender Parents: Kerala High Court
Create Gender Neutral Column In Birth Certificate Of A Child Born To Transgender Parents: Kerala High Court
The Kerala High Court has gratended two months time to the Kozhikode Corporation to issue a new birth certificate of the child born to the transgender parents having a Gender Neutral Column.
The bench of Justice Ziyad Rahman A.A. has observed that ordered the Corporation to remove the column of father and mother and include the name of the petitioners in the birth certificate as parents without referring to their gender. The petitioners said that in the birth certificate, the father’s name has been recorded as Ziya Paval (transgender) and the mother’s name as Zahhad (transgender).
In interesting, rare and exceptional issue has come up, that relates to the rights of transgender persons touching upon the necessity to safeguard their interests, when it comes to the question of the identity of their children who are born as normal persons. The essential issue to be dealt with in this writ petition pertains to the furnishing of the details of parents and their identities in terms of their gender, while issuing a birth certificate to a child born to the transgender parents.
Now the 1st petitioner, who is described as the mother of the 3rd petitioner, is leading the life of a male, with an identity of a male and the 2nd petitioner, who is described as the father of the 3rd petitioner, is leading a life of a female, with an identity of a female, as revealed from the records mentioned above. Their status as transgenders were also mentioned in the said certificate. Therefore, the apprehension of the petitioners is that, the gender identities as described in birth certificate, being contrary to the gender status in life adopted by the parties, are likely to create serious problems and prejudices in the life of the 3rd petitioner, when it comes to the question of education, employment or other profession etc.
The petitioners had requested a new birth certificate from the Kozhikode Corporation for their child, opting to use the gender-neutral term “parent” rather than specifying “father” or “mother.” However, the Corporation declined their request. The petitioners explained that the biological mother had previously identified as male and was living as a man. They cited practices in several other countries where, particularly in same-sex relationships, parents are allowed to select their designation on their child’s birth certificate from options like “mother,” “father,” or “parent.”
The court disposed of the Writ Petition by directing the corporation to issue birth certificate in Form 5, with a modification by removing the columns set apart for the names of Father and Mother and by incorporating the names of the petitioners 1 and 2 as the parents, without referring to the gender of the petitioners 1 and 2.
The court clarified that, no alteration in the details entered into the registers maintained in this regard needs to be made and the modification directed is confined to the issuance of the birth certificate alone.
Case Details
Case Title: Zahhad Versus State Of Kerala
Case No.: WP(C) NO. 23763 OF 2023
Date: 07/06/2025
Counsel For Petitioner: Padma Lakshmi, Prashant Padmanabhan
Counsel For Respondent: V.Krishna Menon
Mariya is the Senior Editor at JurisHour. She has 5+ years of experience on covering tax litigation stories from the Supreme Court, High Courts and various tribunals including CESTAT, ITAT, NCLAT, NCLT, etc. Mariya graduated from MLSU Law College, Udaipur (Raj.) with B.A.LL.B. and also holds an LL.M. She started as a freelance tax reporter in the leading online legal news companies like LiveLaw & Taxscan.
