The Chief Justice ordered that the petition be next presented to a larger bench of three judges. File | Photo credit: The Hindu
The Supreme Court on Tuesday (December 16, 2025) agreed to scrutinize a petition filed by intersex rights activist Gopi Shankar Madurai seeking urgent safeguards for intersex children, including a ban on non-consensual sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and comprehensive recognition in official records.
“This is a very good thing. We want to hear it,” said Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, accompanied by Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The Chief Justice ordered that the petition be next presented to a larger bench of three judges.
The petitioner, represented by advocate Astha Deep, pressed for the inclusion of intersex children in India’s census, which currently overlooks this diverse group by enforcing binary sexual norms.
“This invisibility affects more than 25 million intersex individuals (1.7% of the population) and denies them access to social care, health care and identity services. The inclusion of intersex people in the national census is crucial for accurate data collection and policy making,” the petitioner said.
The petition called for the recognition of intersex alongside existing male and female options in censuses and other forms, while ensuring accurate recording of births and deaths to enable targeted policies.
The case highlighted the critical need for the judiciary and government to distinguish between sexual identity and gender identity and to clarify that intersex people are not transgender.
“Sex identity referred to innate biological variations, including intersex traits that did not conform to typical male or female binaries, while gender identity was a personal and social construct that often involved non-conformity with assigned sex (as in transgender experiences). The confusion of these terms in laws, identity documents such as Aadhaar and passports, and policies leads to coercive interventions on infants, separate recording of gender cards and erasure of sex cards and erasure.” 14, 15 and 21, promoting dignity and equality,” the petitioner said.
Published – 16 Dec 2025 21:26 IST
