Author Archives: Surabhi Shukla

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Arunima Bora v. Pradyunnajit Bora Mat. App. 33/2017

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

On the 3rd of September, 2019, a division bench of the Gauhati High Court decided whether an unsubstantiated (as opposed to unproven) allegation of homosexuality by one of the spouses against the other in a divorce case amounts to cruelty. Summarily, the court answered this question in the affirmative. This is the first recorded instance in which an Indian court has taken a stance on a homosexuality allegation in a divorce case. Though these allegations are raised in divorce cases from time to time, they are always ignored at the argumentation staged, and have never been attended to by the judges in their judgment. In this blog, I will summarize the facts of the case very briefly and discuss the circumstances under which the homosexuality allegation was raised and decided by the court.

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Mohammed Arif Jameel and Anr v. Union of India and Ors. (WP 6435/2020)

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

DIRECTIONS WITH RESPECT TO CORONAVIRUS

On the 9th of April, 2020, a division bench of the Karnataka High Court directed the Karnataka Government to institute measures for vulnerable communities, including the transgender community, in the light of the coronavirus outbreak and the resulting lockdown. Though this interim order does not identify its legal basis, these directions have arguably been issued under Article 226 of the Indian Constitution as they have been made in connection with writ petitions filed in the High Court seeking relief.

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Medical Control of Legal Gender Recognition in India and the Nordic Countries

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

This blog is based on a talk that Dr Daniela Alaattinoğlu and I delivered recently at the University of Oxford. As we delivered the talk together, we have also authored this text together. As its title suggests, the main finding of the talk was that the medical field exercises immense control over the legal gender recognition of trans persons. Even when the law is based only on self-identification, and no role has been carved out for medical professionals, they seem to exercise a great influence in the desire and ability of a trans person to get legal gender recognition. Let us look closer at the Nordic countries and India.

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