Kerala High Court Recognises Transgender Couple as ‘Parents’ in Child’s Birth Certificate

Web desk

Published on Jun 05, 2025, 03:18 PM | 3 min read

Kerala: In a judgment yesterday on June 5, the Kerala High Court has allowed the petition filed by Zahhad and Ziya Paval, India’s first openly transgender parents, directing authorities to replace the terms “father” and “mother” with the gender-neutral term “parents” in their child’s birth certificate.

Zahhad, a trans man who carried and gave birth to the child, had approached the Court along with Ziya, his partner, after the Kozhikode Corporation refused their request for a gender-appropriate designation in the child’s official records. The Corporation had cited the constraints of the existing format under the Registration of Births and Deaths Rules, 1999.

In its judgement, Justice Ziyad Rahman A. A. emphasized the need for the law to keep pace with changing societal realities. “The law cannot remain static, but it has to evolve in accordance with the changes in the society and the lifestyle of members of the society,” he observed.

The original birth certificate had listed Ziya Paval, a transgender woman, as the father and Zahhad as the mother, which contradicted their affirmed gender identities. The couple argued that this misrepresentation could cause significant issues for their child in areas like education and employment.

Supporting their plea, the Court ruled that when such a certificate advances the welfare, interests, and rights of the individuals involved—particularly those rooted in constitutional protections—the Court should not hesitate to intervene.

“If a certificate sought by the petitioners advances the welfare, interests and rights of the petitioners or the class/category they fall in… without offending any of the rights of third parties and without doing violence to any statutory provisions, the court need not hesitate to step in,” Justice Rahman stated.

The Court also recognised the significance of “social justice adjudication,” noting that strict adherence to outdated statutory formats should not override evolving constitutional principles. It pointed out that both the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, and its accompanying 1999 Rules were framed before the legal recognition of transgender individuals—most notably granted through the landmark Supreme Court ruling in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India (2014) and the enactment of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.

However, the Court stopped short of reading down the existing rules, calling the present case “rare and exceptional.” It clarified that its direction applied only to the issuance of the birth certificate, not to any changes in the official birth register, as the petitioners had not sought that specific relief.

This decision is being hailed as a significant advancement for the rights of transgender persons in India, reinforcing the judiciary’s role in ensuring dignity and equality in a society still adapting to non-binary gender identities.