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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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Monu Rajput v. State and Ors. W.P. (Crl.) 1879/2019 and Crl. M.A. 30835/2019

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Habeas Corpus Petition in Delhi High Court

On the 12th of July, 2019, a division bench of the Delhi High Court decided whether a habeas corpus petition filed by a transgender man (Monu) to set his romantic partner at liberty from her family members, could be allowed. The petition was filed against the State to ensure that if the detenue was indeed found to be detained against her will, she be at once set at liberty. Summarily, the court rejected the petition.

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Surbhi Trivedi v. Gaurav Trivedi Misc. Petition No. 4820 of 2018

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

The practical limits of the gender determination aspect of the NALSA decision were tested on the 4th of October, 2019 when a single judge bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court ordered a gender determination test in a matrimonial dispute. In this blog, I will summarize the facts and the decision, and demonstrate that: 1. There is still confusion about the definition of transgender, and intersex persons are considered to be transgender; and 2. That this decision provides a legal limitation to the fundamental right to self-determined gender identity.

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