Groups urge President not to grant assent to ‘regressive’ Transgender Amendment Bill

A day after the Rajya Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, around 140 lawyers and feminists wrote to President Droupadi Murmu, urging her not to grant assent to the Bill, pointing out “constitutional violations” in its provisions and “procedural infirmities” in the way it was passed.

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The letter was written by All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA), a pan-India collective of grassroots organisations, along with National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR), a forum of lawyers and legal professionals.

The groups said in their letter that they were “extremely alarmed and distressed at the undue and unjustifiable haste” with which the Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Breach of legislative policy

They said that not taking public and stakeholder consultation violated the mandate of the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy, 2014. Members of the National Council for Transgender Persons had said that they were not consulted. Soon after the Rajya Sabha passed it on Wednesday, two members and representatives submitted their resignations, the letter pointed out.

The letter emphasised that in the National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) judgment, the Supreme Court held that the right to self-determination of gender is a fundamental right protected under Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution.

Further, they said the introduction of a medical board, whose recommendation is required to “examine” before issuance of a certificate of identity, also goes against the Supreme Court’s stance in NALSA, which rejected such a requirement, adding that this also violates the “right to bodily integrity and privacy” as enshrined in the Constitution.

By removing the guarantee of self-perceived identity, narrowing the definition of who qualifies as transgender, and introducing layers of medical and administrative scrutiny, transgender people, activists and allies, say that many will be erased and rendered invisible by the Bill.

Meanwhile, multiple press conferences and protests took place on Thursday, as groups have set up helpline numbers amid existential questions on the rise among transgender communities.