Transpersons have the right to live anywhere in the country as per their will: Bombay High Court

“How are you assisting them? Have they committed an offence? Do no treat them as criminals”. A question that arose in a case with concerns of Transpersons having the right to live anywhere in the country.

In the case of Sangeetha M. v. State of Maharashtra, the bench of Justice SS Shinde and NJ Jamadar directed the Mumbai Police to provide protection to the transperson due to active threat from the side of his family.

The court observed that there is a grievance and there’s a need to protect it. Since they are the citizens of the country. They can live as per their wish and will and we cannot restrict them at all.

The transperson was asked by his father to return home in Mysore as his mother was not well. Considering the same, the transperson went from Mumbai to Mysore. The family confined the transperson from going anywhere and forcibly asked him to leave his identity since they wanted the transperson to get married as per family wish.

The petitioner, a transgender who was assigned a female gender identifies himself as male lived in Mysore. After sensing there was no support from his family, he took the help of NGO Rahi, based in Bangalore, and managed to get out of Mysore and move back to Mumbai. For a long time, he lived in hiding in anticipation and fear of his family. The Petitioner had contended that living in constant fear was in clear violation of Article 21 of the Constitution and also the Transgender Persons ( Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 which safeguarded the rights and interests of transgender persons.

The Court directed Mumbai police to stop harassing the petitioner and stated that every transperson has a right to move freely without any restraint and confinement.