Recommendations on the Draft Delhi Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2025
In July, 2025 the Government of NCT of Delhi published the draft Delhi Transgender (Protection of Rights) Rules, 2025 (‘2025 draft rules’) and invited public comments on it. In August 2025, the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in partnership with the Keshav Suri Foundation and Advocate Raghavi Shukla (Lawyer and Queer Rights Activists) submitted clause by clause comments, presenting an alternative draft where necessary, to strengthen these rules.
This exercise was informed by the mandate issued by the Supreme Court in NALSA v. Union of India which recognised a transgender person’s right to self-chosen gender identity and other progressive judicial and legal developments on transgender rights in India. Vidhi and KSF also consulted several members of the transgender community including activists and civil society to ensure the recommendations responded to their key demands and lived experiences. We would like to thank every individual and organisation who engaged with us in this exercise for their time and labour.
While the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 is an important legal development for the recognition of rights of the community, the formulation of rules under it by the State Government are critical to operationalising the law on the ground level. Such an exercise must be approached with a rigorous understanding of the community’s needs to create enabling conditions for the exercise of rights.
The key features of the submissions are as follows:
(1) Community Consultations: The NCT Government must carry out consultations with the community on the 2025 draft rules to solicit their inputs and identify how they can be modified and implementation gaps addressed for effective realisation of the rights of the community.
(2) Identity Documents: The 2025 draft rules must prescribe a simple and accessible process for applying for the certificate of gender and name change and for change to other identity documents such as ration card, PAN card, aadhaar etc. The precondition of proof of medical intervention to identify within the binary genders of man and woman must be diluted. Further, the State must play an active role in assisting transgender persons to apply for and change their identity documents.
(3) Functions of Transgender Welfare Board: The provisions relating to the Welfare Board must prescribe clear and targeted functions across advisory, sensitisation, assistance to the community, affirmative measures for protection of rights of the community, and grievance redressal.
(4) Horizontal Reservations: The NCT Government must provide for horizontal reservations to transgender persons in public employment and education to correct for the systemic discrimination the community is subject to. Appropriate legislative and executive measures must be taken in this regard.
(5) Inclusive and Correct Language: Language pertaining to transgender individuals must be sensitive and respectful. The term “transgender” must be used consistently as an adjective and not a noun.
Read our submissions here.
About the Authors
Namrata is a Senior Resident Fellow in the Legal Design and Regulation Vertical at Vidhi. She primarily handles engaged and commissioned projects from various ministries, statutory authorities and regulators by providing legal research and legislative drafting support. At Vidhi, she has worked with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the Department of Consumer Affairs. Namrata also works extensively on queer rights and has initiated and worked on numerous projects on rights of gender and sexual minorities. She has written for the Hindu, the Firstpost, the Economic Times, the Leaflet, Article 14, Indian Express and Varta GenSex Policy Matters. Prior to Vidhi, Namrata taught at the Jindal Global Law School and the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (‘NUJS’), worked with the Migration and Asylum Project on labour laws and policy, the Centre for Popular Democracy in New York City, and the Public Law and Vidhi Aid verticals at Vidhi. She has a BA/LLB from NUJS and a LLM from Columbia Law which she attended in the capacity of a Human Rights Fellow
Kartavi is a Senior Resident Fellow working with the Legal Design and Regulation Team. She completed her B.Sc. LLB (Intellectual Property Hons.) from National Law University Jodhpur in 2018 and obtained her LLM degree from National University of Singapore in 2022. Prior to joining Vidhi, she also worked as a Legal Researcher at the Delhi High Court where she worked on matters ranging from service law and IPR disputes to constitutional law. Her research interests lie in the areas of access to justice, technology policy and digital divide, climate change policy and education. Kartavi also enjoys theatre, cinema and asian literature.
Aashna is a Research Fellow with the Criminal Justice team at Vidhi. Having recently completed their B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from Symbiosis Law School, Pune, they are keenly interested in Constitutional, Administrative, and Criminal Law. Outside of professional engagements, Aashna finds their greatest joy in animals and food, and also enjoys music, competitive parliamentary debate, and political and historical fiction.
Jwalika is a Research Fellow in the Research Director's Office at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, Delhi. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Law (LLM-equivalent) degree from the University of Oxford and a BA LLB (Hons) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. Her areas of interest include family law, equality and anti-discrimination law, and human rights, with a special emphasis on gender and sexuality. She is on the Board of Directors at OutLawed India, a not-for-profit organisation working to improve access to law and justice. At Vidhi, she has been providing legislative drafting assistance to various Ministries, Departments, and Authorities of the Central Government and various State Governments.