Supreme Court today issued a notice to Centre on the issue
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear a petition for judicial intervention on the issue of intersex surgery at birth and sought the Centre's response on the issue. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud issued a notice to Centre and sought assistance from Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati.
The petition says that children are being subjected to intersex surgery at birth without their consent to turn them into male or female. The counsel appearing for the petitioner said such medical interventions are a punishable offence and that there should be a law to stop them.
Tamil Nadu, the petitioner said, is the only state that has barred such surgeries.
Back in 2019, following a Madras High Court order, Tamil Nadu had banned sex assignment surgeries on babies whose sex was not clear at birth. The high court had earlier said such surgeries should be prohibited except in life-threatening situations.
According to the United Nations, about 1.7 per cent of babies are born with sex characteristics that don't fit typical definitions of male and female.
Repeated surgeries and treatment intersex children are put through in order to "fix" their sex and appearance are often irreversible and can cause permanent infertility and lifelong pain, incontinence, loss of sexual sensation, and mental suffering, the UN says. It adds that there is typically no medical reason to perform these procedures with so many possible serious negative impacts on children. The UN underlines that carrying these out without consent violates human rights.
The UN calls upon governments to ban medically unnecessary surgery and procedures on intersex children.
The Tamil Nadu government had said in its 2019 order that it will set up a committee to ensure that the "exceptional clause of life-threatening situation shall not be misused" in these surgeries.