Kerala HC allows gender-neutral birth certificate for transgender couple’s child

The Kerala High Court on Monday directed authorities to issue a gender-neutral birth certificate for the child of a transgender couple, ruling that both parents should be identified simply as “parent” instead of “mother” or “father”.

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Justice Ziyad Rahman AA issued the order on a plea filed by Zahhad, a trans man, and Ziya Paval, a trans woman.

Disposing of the plea, the court directed the Kozhikode Corporation to issue the birth certificate in Form 5, with a modification by removing the columns set apart for the names of the father and mother, and by incorporating the names of petitioners one and two as parents, without referring to their genders.

In their plea, the couple had alleged that local authorities refused to amend the birth certificate of their child.

The birth certificate issued by the Kozhikode Corporation had recorded Zahhad as the “mother (transgender)” and Ziya as the “father (transgender)”. A detailed order is still awaited.

The couple welcomed their child on February 8, 2023, at a Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, in what was believed to be the first such case in India.

Zahhad, who was undergoing gender transition to become a man, paused hormone therapy to conceive.

Initially, the couple had considered adoption but abandoned the plan midway due to complex legal procedures. They also feared emotional distress if an adopted child chose to leave them later in life.

Eventually, the couple decided to have a biological child, halting medical transition to do so.