Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on plea concerning rights of intersex infants and children

 The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a plea concerning the rights of intersex infants and children which claimed that there exists no mechanism under law providing for their birth and death registration.

Issuing a notice to the Centre and others, a Bench presided over by Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud, sought assistance of Additional Solicitor General (ASG), Aishwarya Bhati, in the matter.

“There is no mechanism to register their death and birth under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act and they are not even considered for census,” said the counsel appearing for the petitioner to the Bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

She further stated that sex-selective surgeries are performed on intersex infants and children nearly in all states, just with the consent of the parents.

In other foreign jurisdictions, such medical intervention performed before attainment of majority amounts to a punishable offence, unless an independent panel of experts and doctors finds it necessary in a life-threatening situation, the lawyer added.

In India, the Tamil Nadu government under a judgment of the Madras High Court ordered a ban on sex reassignment surgeries on intersex infants and children except in life-threatening situations.

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