Submissions on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026
The Parliament has passed the ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026 (‘Amendment Bill’). On March 23, 2026 the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy shared detailed submissions with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on the Amendment Bill.
As a matter of first principle, the submissions outline the need for extensive consultations with the transgender community on all legal and policy developments directly impacting them. Further, they throw light on how the Amendment Bill is in tension with the Supreme Court’s landmark judgement in NALSA v. Union of India and Justice Puttaswamy v. Union of India as it dilutes the fundamental right to gender identity and raises privacy concerns, respectively.
Specifically, the submissions note the potential harm that the Amendment Bill can result in through exclusion of certain transgender communities, medical gatekeeping and expansion of the net of criminalisation. Read our detailed submissions here.
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About the Authors
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.
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
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.
Naveed is Senior Resident Fellow and Lead with the Crime and Punishment Team at Vidhi. His work focuses on decriminalisation of India's legislative landscape and reimagining India's approach towards Crime & Punishment. Previously, Naveed has worked on criminalisation of drug use and evaluated the government response to increasing violence against women. Naveed holds an undergraduate degree in law from National University of Law, Punjab and a Masters in Law from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Kahaan is a Senior Resident Fellow in the Applied Law and Technology Research Team at Vidhi. His experience in the technology law and policy space is diverse, spanning academia, strategic litigation, and advocacy. Previously, he has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Washington D.C.), the Software Freedom Law Center, India (SFLC.in), and at the Daksha Fellowship. His work has focused on areas such as internet shutdowns, technological due process, digital free speech, privacy, and AI governance. He has worked on reports on different subjects at the intersection of law and technology commissioned by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (UK FCDO), the European Commission (EC), among others. His work often incorporates an interdisciplinary perspective, specifically from the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), system design principles, and philosophy of technology. He graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 2021 with an LL.B., and secured his LL.M. in Technology Law and Policy from the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington D.C. in 2024.
