Overview
- The court held that a District Magistrate’s Section 7 certificate under the 2019 law is sufficient to record gender in a passport with no additional paperwork.
- It quashed the passport office’s June 23, 2025 directive that required a fresh medical examination at an empanelled clinic and sought changes to the birth certificate.
- Passport officials were directed to issue the document based on the petitioner’s revised identity certificate without imposing extra-statutory conditions.
- Justices Atul Sreedharan and Siddharth Nandan said the statute provides a complete recognition mechanism and that the DM’s certificate “gives a quietus” to the dispute.
- Citing the Act and 2020 Rules, the court affirmed that a passport is an “official document” covered by the certificate, reinforcing the law’s focus on dignity and equal access for transgender persons.