Can list trans couple as parents in birth certificate: Kerala high court

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

The Kerala high court on Monday ruled that a transgender couple can be listed simply as 'parents', rather than 'mother' and 'father', on their child's birth certificate, in a decision that marks a significant moment in the legal recognition of non-traditional families and gender identity in official documents.
The order was passed by a vacation bench of justice Ziyad Rahman AA, who directed Kozhikode municipal authorities to replace gendered parental terms with the gender-neutral designation 'parent' for both individuals.
The petitioners —Zahhad, a trans man, and Ziya Paval, a trans woman —are believed to be Kerala's first openly transgender couple to have a biological child. Their journey to parenthood captured national attention in February 2023 when Zahhad gave birth, a first for India's transgender community.
Initially, the Kozhikode civic body issued a birth certificate listing Zahhad as the 'mother' and Ziya as the 'father,' ignoring their self-identified genders. Their plea to be recognised solely as 'parents' was denied, prompting them to move the high court for redress.
The couple was represented by Padma Lakshmi, Kerala's first transgender lawyer, who argued that the refusal to accommodate their request violated their fundamental right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
Article 14 does not restrict the meaning of the word 'person' only to male or female, and transpeople too were entitled to legal protection and had rights in 'all spheres of state activity,' she told the high court at the time. They also claimed that their prayer was in line with the principles laid out in the Supreme Court's 2014 NALSA judgement, which upholds the rights of transgender individuals to self-identify their gender.
The high court concurred, directing the civic body in Kozhikode to issue a birth certificate to the couple's child by incorporating both their names only as parents, without referring to their specific genders.
'This writ petition is disposed of directing the fifth respondent (civic body) to issue birth certificate with the modification by removing the columns of names of father and mother and by incorporating the names of the petitioners as parents without referring to their genders,' the operative part of the order, as read out by the judge, stated. The full judgment is awaited.
The couple explained in their petition that Zahhad, despite being the biological parent who gave birth, has long identified and lived as male. Forcing them to label themselves as 'mother' and 'father' not only contradicted their lived identities but also risked subjecting their child to lifelong confusion and discrimination in situations such as school admissions and the issuance of official documents such as Aadhaar, PAN cards, and passports.
'The petitioners made such a request to the Kozhikode Corporation to avoid the name of father and mother on the birth certificate because the biological mother of the child has identified herself as male years ago and is living as male member in the society. Since scientifically there's some contradiction in the fact that male giving birth to a child, the petitioners requested the authorities to avoid the name of father and mother but simply writing 'Parent'…' their petition in the court read.
Their legal team further contended that denying the couple gender-neutral recognition would not only infringe upon the parents' rights but also breach their child's fundamental rights -- a view the court ultimately upheld while setting a precedent on the affirmation of the rights of transgender individuals and their families.