Transgender Identity Certificate Valid Document For PAN Card Application: Govt

New Delhi: The Central government has told Supreme Court that a certificate of identity issued by the district magistrate under Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 will be treated as valid documentation for PAN card application.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah said the Union of India has in principle accepted this request and the Union government may consider incorporating it in the rules to bring clarity, reported PTI.

“During the pendency of this petition, we sought a reply from Union of India, who has been very supportive in this matter and by and large has accepted all the demands which have been raised in the present petition including the one, that the certificate to be issued under Section 6/7 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 will be acceptable, if it is given by the district magistrate,” the bench said.

Sections 6 and 7 of the Act deal with the issue of certificates of identity and changes in gender.

Reshma Prasad, a transgender social activist from Bihar, had filed a petition in Supreme Court in 2018 stating that her attempt to link PAN with Aadhaar had failed as the PAN card has no ‘third gender’ option, unlike Aadhaar card.

Reshma had sought a direction to the Central government to create a separate third gender category option for PAN card to enable transgenders like her to link it with Aadhaar and obtain an “accurate” identity proof.

Reshma had submitted that she enrolled for PAN in 2012 selecting the male gender identity category, and got tax return for years 2015-16 and 2016-2017 in the category of male.