Transgender woman’s plea to change name: Delhi High Court asks how ‘easy’ it is

Source – indianexpress.com

Hearing the case of a 24-year-old transgender person seeking to change her name from Rahul Sharma to Riya Sharma, the Delhi High Court Monday asked the petitioner “if it was so easy to change names in Class X and XII certificates at this stage”.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar took a hypothetical example of “a woman, who has availed all benefits under various schemes for women, wanting to change her name from female to male”. “In that example, retrospectively, can it be looked back at this stage?” Justice Mittal observed.

The bench went on to give another hypothetical example of a woman “who represented India at an international level as a female athlete”. The bench asked the petitioner’s counsel if “this aspect has been thought about”.

It also asked “whether the counsel has checked the law related to the issue on other forums, and if this has been tested on international forums”. It asked Sharma’s counsel Yashraj Singh Deora to file a written submission on the above aspect by July 25. The petitioner has been fighting the case since 2017 to change her name in Class X and XII certificates issued by the CBSE. The CBSE had stated that “in the absence of a provision for change of name of candidate after declaration of results in its byelaws, the petitioner does not have a vested right to seek change of name in CBSE certificates”.

The Delhi University had replied that “no relief can be granted to her and her case has no merit”. On Monday, the bench observed orally that “this is not considered an absolute fundamental right under the Constitution of India”.