Can A Person Be Permitted To Change Name After Sex Reassignment Surgery? : Allahabad High Court To Examine

A bench of Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery requested Senior Advocate HR Mishra, assisted by Sri Advocate VR Tiwari, to assist the Court on this question.

The matter will be heard on October 30.

The Court asked the counsels to go through the judgments passed by Karnataka High Court in Ms.X vs. State of Karnataka and another 2024 LiveLaw (Kar) 529 and Manipur High Court in Dr. Beoncy Laishram vs. The State of Manipur and others 2025.

For context, in Ms X case (supra), the Karnataka High Court last year asked the state government to suggest amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, and the rules framed thereunder to "give effect" to the Transgender Persons(Protection of Rights) Act 2019, in permitting change of name and gender of a transgender person in their birth/death certificate.

In Dr. Beoncy Laishram case (supra), the Manipur High Court, earlier this year, held that the govt authorities were obligated under Section 10 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, ('Act') to make the correction in the name and gender based on the identity certificate issued by the District Magistrate ('DM'), without waiting for the correction firstly to be made by the initial institute.

The Allahabad HC encountered the issue while dealing with a writ plea moved by one Sharad Roshan Singh, who sought change of his name in officials records after his sex reassignment surgery.

The petitioner, a resident of Shahjahanpur, who works as an assistant teacher, began attempting to change his gender in 2020 and finally completed the process successfully in 2023.

He also applied to the district magistrate and obtained a sex change certificate and identity card. Thereafter, he moved the court seeking change of his name from Sarita to Sharad in official records.