On Monday, the Union government told the Karnataka High Court that The Transgender Persons act protects the rights of transgender persons by giving them right to self perceived identity and safeguards them against discrimination.

A petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Act and related rules in the response for that the Central government specifically cited that the Sections 4, 5, 6, 7 12 and 18 to argue that the law protects transgender persons by recognising self-perceived gender identity and the matter will be next heard on September 8.

As per Section 4 of the 2019 Act, a transgender person shall have the right to be recognised only as a ‘transgender’ and not as male, female, transgender or other. This is contrary to what was held by the Supreme Court in NALSA v. Union of India.