Tharoor Slams Transgender Amendment Bill as Regressive

In a post on X, the Thiruvananthapuram MP expressed concern that the Bill was tabled “secretly and without proper consultation with stakeholders”.

Tharoor argued that the amendments undermine the 2014 Supreme Court NALSA judgment by deleting Section 4(2) of the 2019 Act, which guarantees the right to one’s self-perceived gender identity.

He stated that the bill reverses the rights-based framework established after the NALSA decision, replacing personal identification with medical board verification and bureaucratic certification systems before recognition of identity.

The proposed bill aims to provide a precise definition for the identification and protection of transgender people who are eligible for benefits under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019.

However, Tharoor claimed that the new definition narrows significantly and risks excluding previously recognized trans men, trans women, non-binary and gender diverse individuals, reducing gender identity to biological markers or limited socio-cultural categories.

He also raised privacy concerns about mandatory reporting of gender-affirming surgeries to government authorities, warning that this could end up in Government records of personal medical decisions. He said this would be difficult to reconcile with the Supreme Court’s Puttaswamy judgment on the right to privacy.

Tharoor warned that such provisions could push a historically marginalized community back into legal invisibility and stressed that a bill with far-reaching implications should be referred to the Standing Committee for proper scrutiny.

He expressed hope that reason and constitutional morality would prevail over what he called a reactionary proposal.

Earlier, on March 14, Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar introduced the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026, in the Lok Sabha to amend the 2019 Act.

The bill also proposes amendments to Article 18 of the main law; It introduces graduated penalties for specific crimes based on the severity of the harm, the irreversibility of the injury, and the vulnerability of child victims.

Meanwhile, Tharoor also wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, conveying the concerns raised by CAPF veterans on service-related and institutional issues and requested due consideration before discussions on the Central Armed Police Forces (General Government) Bill, 2026 in Parliament.