A RIGHT IN THE MAKING

Though the Supreme Court disappointed the LGBTQIA+ community on the issue of civil union, it hopes that the recent announcements by the Indian National Congress, CPI(M) and BJP will pave the way for a legislative solution to its rights

- NAINA GAUTAM

IN October last year, the Supreme Court shocked the groups fighting for the rights of alternative sexualities in the country when a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, unanimously held that the LGBTQIA+ people were not entitled to be legally wedded under the Constitution. The activists did not find comfort in the fact that a five-judge bench delivered four separate judgements on the issue since a thread of unanimity ran through all of them despite the differences.

The LGBTQIA+ community had pinned its hopes on the Supreme Court after it won a long-drawn legal battle to decriminalise consensual non-binary sex, which had faced stiff resistance in the government and lower courts. The community feels that a right to civil union would have given it access to civil rights that are denied to them by default.

Two years after the court read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which stands replaced now, in September 2018, a report Queering the Law: Making Indian Laws LGBTQIA+ Inclusive commented on the difficulties that the community continued to face in accessing the rights given to them by the court. In its introduction to the chapter on identification documents, the report states, “Identity documents are essential for accessing an array of rights and benefits. But updating them can be very difficult, particularly for transgender persons. Procedures for doing so are complicated, and officials in the process may often discriminate against queer persons.”

For example, basic documents like the Aadhaar card, the PAN card and the passport require applicants to choose from either male, female or transgender. There is no place for other genders—there are 72 of them. Considering the fact that each of these government documents is processed by a separate department, the cost of amendments in terms of procedures, time and energy will be huge. And, this is just one of the several chapters in the manual.