Kerala High Court Directs NTA To Incorporate Transwoman PhD Candidate's Self-Identified Name In JRF Certificate

The plea before Justice V.G. Arun was by Rithisha Rithu, the first transgender woman in Kerala to be admitted into a Ph.D. programme.

After self-identification of her gender identity, the petitioner had applied for a revised certificate of identity. In January 2023, she was issued Form 3 certificate by the District Magistrate, recognizing her gender identity and self-declared name as Rithisha Rithu.

Later, in May 2024, she had applied for the UGC NET examination conducted by the 2^nd respondent, National Testing Agency. In her application, she had given her gender identity as transgender/third gender and had entered her previous name that was mentioned in her academic records and Aadhaar card, which had not at the time been formally updated to reflect her self-identified name.

Subsequently, in December 2024, she cleared for UGC NET and was awarded Exhibit P4 certificate for qualifying for Junior Research Fellowship. Thereupon, she secured admission to the Ph.D. programme in the Social Work department.

Since the JRF awarded to the petitioner is disbursed through the Scholarship and Fellowship Management Portal (SFMP) jointly operated by the UGC and Canara Bank, she opened an account with the said bank in her self-declared name. However, when she tried to link her bank account to the SFM portal, the same was rejected alleging beneficiary name mismatch. Thereafter, she preferred representations before the respondents seeking consideration of her grievance. Since no action was taken on the same, she had come before the High Court.

“The denial of fellowship benefits arising solely from the respondents' failure to duly recognise her legally updated identity has effectively deprived the petitioner of her only source of sustenance and academic support. This amounts to a violation of her fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, and 21 of the Constitution of India and Sections 3,4,6,7 and 8 of The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act,2019. The petitioner is being penalised not for any lapse on her part, but for exercising her statutory and constitutional right to live with dignity, autonomy, and identity,” states the plea.

Thus, she has prayed for a direction to the UGC, NTA and Canara Bank to take immediate steps to disburse her JRF and to rectify the records to reflect her self-identified name. She has also made a prayer to direct the 1^st respondent UGC to pay Rs. 25,000 as costs of the litigation.

As an interim prayer, she has sought for a direction to disburse the JRF through SFMP during the pendency of the writ petition.

After hearing the parties, the Court noted that there was a confusion among the 2^nd respondent University Grants Commission and the 3^rd respondent National Testing Agency as to who has to carry out the name correction in Exhibit P4 certificate awarding Junior Research Fellowship.

It then went on to pass the following order today:

“The petitioner's predicament is that she had changed her name from Sourav Soman consequent upon the change of her gender…Having heard the counsels in detail, this Court is of the view that it is for the National Testing Agency to carry out the correction. Hence, there shall be an interim direction to the 2^nd respondent to take a decision on the petitioner's request for correction of name in Exhibit P4 certificate within 2 weeks.”

The petition is moved by Advocates Dhanuja M.S. and Legith J. Kottakkal.

Case No: WP(C) 29583/2025

Case Title: Rithisha Rithu v. UGC and Ors.