The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Centre on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking to safeguard rights of intersex children. Notably, 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.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra issued notice to the Central government and sought assistance from Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati.
The plea filed by Gopi Shankar M said that intersex children are subjected to unregulated sex-change surgeries. It further pointed out that children are being subjected to intersex surgery at birth without their consent to turn them into male or female. Appearing for the petitioner, the counsel stated that such medical interventions are a punishable offence and that there should be a law to stop them.
Earlier in 2019, following a Madras High Court order, Tamil Nadu had banned sex assignment surgeries on babies whose sex was not clear at birth. The high court had previously said that such surgeries should be prohibited except in life-threatening situations.
As per United Nations, nearly 1.7 percent of babies are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit typical definitions of male and female. It mentioned that repeated surgeries and treatment intersex children are put through in order to fix their sex and appearance are often irreversible and can cause permanent infertility and lifelong pain, incontinence, loss of sexual sensation, and mental suffering.
The UN added that there is typically no medical reason to perform these procedures with so many possible serious negative impacts on children. It further underlined that carrying these out without consent violates human rights. Subsequently, it called upon governments to ban medically unnecessary surgery and procedures on intersex children.