The Kerala High Court on Friday adjourned to July 27 hearing on a writ petition filed by transgender parents seeking a directive to the Kozhikode Corporation to issue a new birth certificate of their newborn mentioning them as parents, instead of father and mother.
In their petition, Zahhad, a transman, and Ziya Paval, a transwoman, said that they become India’s first transgender parents with the birth of their child in February. They pointed out that the Kozhikode Corporation had registered the birth of the child, and issued a birth certificate showing the name of the father as Ziya Paval and that of the mother as Zahad.
They had approached the officers of the Corporation for carrying out the changes . This was because the biological mother of the child had identified herself as “male” years ago and biological father as “female’ and they are now living together as male member and female member, respectively. Since this fact did not conform to the accepted societal norms, it is likely to create undesirable confusion in the minds of people who come across the birth certificate, resulting in avoidable embarrassment to the minor child of the petitioner. However, their request was turned down by the Corporation and given a birth certificate describing them as father and mother of the child., the petitioners said.
