The Union government told the Supreme Court on Monday that transgender identity cards issued before the 2026 amendments to the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Act will not be invalidated, reported Bar and Bench.

The submission came after a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana sought the Centre’s response on the status of trans persons who had obtained identity cards before the amendments.

The amendments to the 2019 Act, cleared by Parliament in March, redefine who qualifies as a transgender person. They remove trans persons’ right to self-perceived gender identity. They also limit the scope of the law to those with certain biological or physiological characteristics, intersex variations, or specific socio-cultural identities such as kinner, hijra, aravani and jogta.

The law makes medical evaluation and certification mandatory for legal gender recognition. It also vests the authority to certify legal gender recognition in medical professionals operating under a medical board.

On August 3, petitioners challenging the amendments, including trans persons and activists, said that the identity cards cannot be cancelled and sought status quo on their validity.

In an application filed in the case on August 10, petitioner Ankani Biswas said that they had been issued a transgender identity card under the 2019 Act on February 2, 2023, reported Bar and Bench.

Biswas alleged that when they checked the National Portal for Transgender Persons on July 16, they found that the card had been replaced with a new one containing several errors.

The new card did not carry an official signature or seal, and mentioned Biswas’ birth name instead of the one adopted subsequently, the application was quoted as saying by Bar and Bench. It also allegedly contained discrepancies in the date of application and date of birth.

The card was replaced without any notice, Biswas told the court and sought restoration of the previous one.

Issuing notice on Biswas’ application, the bench posted the matter for final hearing, reported Live Law.

During a hearing on August 3, the Supreme Court had said that the 2026 amendment cannot take away the rights of persons who have already been granted cards.

When the bill was being discussed in Parliament, Opposition leaders had expressed concerns that it undermined the right to self-identification recognised by the Supreme Court in the 2014 National Legal Services Authority v Union of India case. The verdict had formally created the “third gender” category for transgender persons that recognised them as a socially and economically backward class.

The 2014 judgement had also directed the government to ensure that the transgender community gets job quotas, admission in educational institutions, health benefits, separate public toilets and a host of other safeguards against discrimination.

Edited by Sara Varghese.

Also read: Why activists see the imprint of Hindutva in the new transgender law

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