Supreme Court refers to three-judge Bench a plea to protect the rights of intersex children

The Supreme Court on Tuesday (December 16, 2025) agreed to examine in detail 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 issue. We want to hear this,” Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, accompanied by Justice Joymalya Bagchi, remarked.

The Chief Justice ordered the petition to be placed before a larger Bench of three judges the next time.

The petitioner, represented by advocate Astha Deep, urged the inclusion of intersex infants in India’s population Census, which currently overlooks this diverse group by enforcing binary sex norms.

“This invisibility affects over 25 million intersex individuals (1.7% of the population), denying them access to welfare, healthcare, and identity services. Inclusion of intersex in the national Census is crucial for accurate data collection and policy-making,” the petitioner submitted.

The petition called for intersex recognition alongside the existing male and female options in the Census and other forms, while ensuring accurate recording of births and deaths to enable targeted policies.

The case underscored the vital need for the judiciary and government to distinguish between sex identity and gender identity, and to clarify that intersex persons were not transgender.

“Sex identity referred to innate biological variations, including intersex traits that did not fit typical male or female binaries, whereas gender identity was a personal and social construct often involving a mismatch with assigned sex (as in transgender experiences). The conflation of these terms in laws, identity documents like Aadhaar and passports, and policies leads to forced interventions on infants, discrimination, and erasure. Issuing cards that separately record sex and gender is urged to uphold Articles 14, 15, and 21, fostering dignity and equality,” the petitioner submitted.