The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response on a plea stating that intersex children are being subjected to unregulated sex change surgeries, and sought putting in place a statutory mechanism to regulate medical intervention with intersex infants and children.

While issuing notice to the Central government, a bench comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati to assist the court in the matter.

The PIL by one Gopi Shankar M says that there is no uniform policy across the country with respect to the children with non-binary sex identities and most of the hospitals are clueless how to deal with such a situation.

The public interest plea has sought direction to the central government to consider putting in place a statutory mechanism to regulate medical intervention with intersex infants and children. It has also sought provisions for the recording of the births and deaths of the ‘intersex’ persons.

The intersex people are individuals born with a combination of male and female biological traits that do not fall under the binary notions of male or female bodies.

The PIL stated that people with intersex characteristics have been facing various challenges due to the usage of the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably. In the past one and half year, the Madurai (Tamil Nadu) based Government Rajaji Hospital performed surgeries on 40 intersex newborns and children with ambiguous genitalia, states the PIL.

Seeking provisions for issuance of identity cards carrying both ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ identities separately and for the inclusion of ‘intersex’ persons in the Census, the PIL says, “Most of the States are issuing the ID card of either male and female or the transgender identity. This hides the data of many transgender persons and persons with intersex variations.”

In its prayer, the PIL has sought direction for the inclusion of ‘intersex’ people in schools, colleges, government and private jobs, adoption and care homes at par with a male or a female candidate and also considering reservation for intersex people, they being a marginalized class.”