Kerala HC allows trans couple to be listed as ‘parents’ in child’s birth certificate
Court says denying trans couple gender-neutral recognition would infringe upon both their and their child’s rights
In a landmark judgment, the Kerala High Court has directed the state authorities to issue a revised birth certificate of a child of a transgender couple, identifying them as “parents” instead of father and mother.
The ruling marks a significant moment in the legal recognition of non-traditional families and gender identity in official documents.
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Historic verdict
The judgment was issued by Justice Ziyad Rahman AA on Monday (June 2) on a plea filed by trans couple Zahhad and Ziya Paval, seeking a gender-neutral format in the birth certificate issued by the Kozhikode Corporation.
The order directed Kozhikode municipal authorities to replace gendered parental terms with the gender-neutral designation “parent” for both individuals.
The Kozhikode Corporation had earlier issued a birth certificate mentioning Zahhad as the mother and Ziya Paval as the father, along with the term transgender in parentheses.
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Couple’s journey
Zahhad and Ziya, Kerala’s first openly transgender couple to have a biological child, made headlines in February 2023 when Zahhad gave birth — an unprecedented moment for India’s transgender community.
Despite Zahhad identifying as male and living as such for years, the original certificate listed him as “mother” and Ziya as “father,” sparking the legal battle.
The trans couple objected to this classification, stating that it did not reflect their gender identities accurately.
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Legal challenge
The couple was represented by Padma Lakshmi, Kerala’s first transgender lawyer, who argued that the refusal to accommodate their request violated their fundamental right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
Article 14 does not restrict the meaning of the word “person” only to male or female, and transpeople too were entitled to legal protection and had rights in “all spheres of state activity,” she stated
The couple also claimed that their plea was in line with the principles laid out in the Supreme Court’s 2014 NALSA judgement, which upholds the rights of transgender individuals to self-identify their gender.
The couple explained in their petition that Zahhad, despite being the biological parent who gave birth, has long identified and lived as male.
"Since there is scientific contradiction in the idea of a male giving birth to a child, the petitioners requested the authorities to avoid using the terms 'father' and 'mother', and instead simply write 'Parent'," their petition stated.
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Court’s rationale
The high court concurred, directing the civic body in Kozhikode to issue a birth certificate to the couple’s child by incorporating both their names only as parents, without referring to their specific genders.
Upholding the petitioner's argument that denying the couple gender-neutral recognition would not only infringe upon the parents’ rights but also breach their child’s fundamental rights, the court has set a precedent affirming the rights of transgender individuals and their families.
Justice Rahman directed the civic body to “remove the columns of names of father and mother and incorporate the names of the petitioners as parents without referring to their genders.”
The full text of the judgment is awaited, but the operative part clearly sets a precedent in recognising non-traditional family structures.
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Community impact
"This is a major victory for the LGBTQ community. The certificate currently includes two slots -Name of Mother, Name of Father. This will be changed for trans parents henceforth," Padma Lakshmi, the lawyer who represented the trans couple, was quoted as saying by Onmanorama.
"We are extremely happy about the court's verdict. Trans couples like us can now opt to be recognised as 'parents' instead of gender-specific identities like 'mother' and 'father'. We filed the case soon after our child's birth," Ziya told Onmanorama.