In an unprecedented move, the central government on Tuesday, July 9, issued an order permitting a Hyderabad-based Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer to change her name and gender.
M. Anusuya, who is currently serving as Joint Commissioner in the office of the Chief Commissioner at the Customs, Excise, and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal in Hyderabad, requested a name change to M. Anukathir Surya and a gender change from female to male.
From Ms M Anusuya To Mr M Anukathir Surya
According to an order signed by the Under Secretary, Department of Revenue (Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs), Ministry of Finance, Anusuya’s request has been approved, and she will "henceforth be recognised as Mr M Anukathir Surya in all official records."
2014 Supreme Court verdict on gender choice
Following the Supreme Court's April 15, 2014 judgment in the NALSA case, which recognised the third gender and affirmed that gender identity is a personal choice irrespective of sex reassignment surgery (SRS), a male commercial tax officer in Odisha decided to change her gender to female. Five years after joining the Odisha Financial Services, in 2015, she was officially recognised as Aishwarya Rituparna Pradhan.
In the April 2014 judgment, the Supreme Court stated, "Sexual orientation refers to an individual’s enduring physical, romantic, and/or emotional attraction to another person. Sexual orientation includes transgender and gender-variant people with diverse sexual orientations, which may or may not change during or after gender transition, encompassing homosexuals, bisexuals, heterosexuals, asexuals, etc."
In June 2015, a BA LLB law student at NALSAR University requested the university not to identify gender in the graduate certificate. The university agreed to the student's request and decided to use the honorific prefix 'Mx' instead of 'Ms'.
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