Published Mar 26, 2026 | 11:45 AM ⚊ Updated Mar 26, 2026 | 11:45 AM
Crowd of people shaped like equal sign in transgender symbol on blue background. (iStock)
Synopsis: Expressing concern over the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, more than 140 lawyers and feminists sent an urgent appeal to the President of India. The appeal urged the President to withhold her assent and instead send it back to Parliament for reconsideration.
Expressing concern over the haste with which the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, more than 140 lawyers and feminists sent an urgent appeal to the President of India on Thursday, 26 March.
The appeal urged the President to withhold her assent to the Bill by exercising her power under Article 111 of the Constitution of India and instead send it back to Parliament for reconsideration.
It was issued by All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR) — platforms of the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM).
The signatories urged the President to recommend the Parliament to refer the Bill to the relevant Standing Committee or a Select or Joint Parliament Committee for impartial and thorough scrutiny and extensive consultations with members of the transgender, intersex, non-binary and genderqueer communities, collectives and civil society, civil liberties groups on the operational and procedural aspects and limitations of the 2019 Act and the present Bill.
The letter pointed out multiple procedural infirmities in the manner of passage of the Bill, violating the Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy (2014). It is alleged that the Government misled the House that the transgender communities were consulted prior to amendments being introduced.
It stated that there was no consultation, even with the members of the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP) constituted under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, before legalising the “deeply problematic” amendments.
They alleged that even though NCTP members were invited to Delhi on 22 March, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment did not meet them.
The letter said that multiple members of NCTP have resigned, owing to a severe democratic deficit in the entire process and the far-reaching effects this regressive Bill would have on lakhs of transgender persons.
Critics said the Bill violates three major judgements of the Supreme Court — NALSA vs Union of India (2014), Puttuswamy vs Union of India (2018) and Jane Kaushik vs Union of India (2025).
“The right to self-determination/self-identification of one’s gender is a fundamental right protected under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution, and the current Bill de-recognises this right in an unconstitutional manner and ushers in unacceptable criminalisation of the individual right to gender identity and support to the same,” the activists said.
The letter also pointed out that the Chairperson of the Advisory Committee appointed by the Supreme Court in the Jane Kaushik case, Justice (Retd.) Asha Menon wrote an urgent letter to the Union Government on 25 March seeking the withdrawal of the Bill, but the Government still went ahead and passed it in Parliament.
The signatories said they hoped that the President would exercise her constitutional powers to hold assent and discharge her constitutional and moral responsibility in advancing the rights of some of the most marginalised communities of India.
