HC authorises techie's change of sex, name
A subramani
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Chennai:
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Born a woman, a software engineer who graduated from Anna University will now be able to change her gender to male in all her school and college certificates, with the Madras high court acknowledging her sex reassignment surgery and asking officials to make the change in her educational records within two months.Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana passed the order that will enable S Rekkha Kaliamoorthty to get her sex altered to male, and name changed to K Gowtham Subramaniam.
Rekkha passed out of Anna University with BE degree (computer science and engineering) in 2012.She said her family identified her as a female at the time of birth but she had always felt like a man and lived as one. She then consulted a surgeon who advised her to undergo hormone therapy followed by sex reassignment surgery .
After completing hormone replacement therapy and a psychological test, she was issued a certificate stating that she was a transgender.
The petitioner then underwent sex reassignment surgery and adopted the name K Gowtham Subramaniam. He published this in the Tamil Nadu government gazette and a private company later hired him as a male employee.
Since the authorities did not consider his request for change of name and sex in school and college records, and in the absence of any precedent or provision, he filed a petition in the Madras high court.
Censuring officials, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, said, “When a transgender undergoes a sex reassignment surgery and makes an application thereafter for change of name and sex in relevant records on the basis of documents issued by a medical officer, the authorities are expected to verify the records and make changes... Because the petitioner belongs to the third gender, he or she cannot be made to run from pillar to post on the grounds that there are no rules available permitting such changes.“
Pointing out that the petitioner had relevant medical certificates from doctors and a hospital in Thailand, the judge said, “He also produced sufficient documents to prove his identity and the authorities ought to have considered his application.In fact, the authorities, in the nature of the present case, should readily extend a helping hand rather than deny the same.“
Rekkha passed out of Anna University with BE degree (computer science and engineering) in 2012.She said her family identified her as a female at the time of birth but she had always felt like a man and lived as one. She then consulted a surgeon who advised her to undergo hormone therapy followed by sex reassignment surgery .
After completing hormone replacement therapy and a psychological test, she was issued a certificate stating that she was a transgender.
The petitioner then underwent sex reassignment surgery and adopted the name K Gowtham Subramaniam. He published this in the Tamil Nadu government gazette and a private company later hired him as a male employee.
Since the authorities did not consider his request for change of name and sex in school and college records, and in the absence of any precedent or provision, he filed a petition in the Madras high court.
Censuring officials, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, said, “When a transgender undergoes a sex reassignment surgery and makes an application thereafter for change of name and sex in relevant records on the basis of documents issued by a medical officer, the authorities are expected to verify the records and make changes... Because the petitioner belongs to the third gender, he or she cannot be made to run from pillar to post on the grounds that there are no rules available permitting such changes.“
Pointing out that the petitioner had relevant medical certificates from doctors and a hospital in Thailand, the judge said, “He also produced sufficient documents to prove his identity and the authorities ought to have considered his application.In fact, the authorities, in the nature of the present case, should readily extend a helping hand rather than deny the same.“
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