Rights of Transgender Persons Bill 2014

April 24, 2015: The “Rights of Transgender Persons Bill 2014” was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 24th April 2015 unanimously, with cross-party support. This was a private member’s bill, introduced by the MP from Tamilnadu, Tiruchi Siva, and is the first private member’s bill passed since the last 45 years.

The immediate legal opinion we have received about the status of this bill is the following :

“There are a number of steps required to be passed before the Rights of Transgender Persons Bill can become a law.  A Bill has to be passed by both Houses of Parliament and obtain presidential assent before it becomes an Act. At present, the Bill has only been passed by the Rajya Sabha. Following this, it  will be sent before the Lok Sabha for consideration and passing. The Lok Sabha can make amendments to the Bill after which it will have to be passed by the Rajya Sabha again before it goes before the President for assent.”

Translations of the above statement are available for download :
Tamil (thanks to Surya) [pdf, tiff] Hindi (thanks to Manak and Kunal) [pdf, tiff] Marathi (thanks to Aaditya) [pdf, tiff]

A detailed primer on what the bill’s implications are has been written by Danish Sheikh and is linked below, along with translations in Hindi, Marathi and Bengali (thanks to Manak Matiyani, Aaditya Joshi and Abhijit Majumder for translations and Kunal Ambasta, Saurabh Bondre, Prathmesh Patil for proofreading)

The text of the bill and the context

  • Full text of the bill
    [download]
  • NEW : A primer on the implications of the bill, by Danish Sheikh
    [download pdf or see text] Hindi translation (by Manak Matiyani) [download pdf] Marathi translation (by Aaditya Joshi) [download pdf] Bengali translation (by Abhijit Majumder) [download pdf]
  • Transcripts (in English) of the debate in the Rajya Sabha on 13 Mar 2015
    [part I (from page 7), part II and part III]
  • Video recordings of the debate in the Rajya Sabha on 13 Mar 2015
    [part I, part II and part III]
  • For more background information, see Orinam’s post on 13 Mar 2015
    [link]
  • Orinam’s NALSA page with links to Supreme Court ruling, analyses, and MSJE report
    [link]

Coverage in print and e-media

25 April 2015

24 April 2015