Why transgender persons should not be allowed to adopt children, Madras High Court asks Centre

The Madras High Court has directed the Centre to explain why transgender persons should also not be allowed to adopt children especially in the light of a statutory obligation imposed on the government to secure full and effective participation of transgender persons and their inclusion in society.

The First Division Bench of Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan raised the query and granted time for Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan to ensure that a counter affidavit was filed by the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) by December 4, 2025.

Legal interpretation of ‘female’

B. Shama of Kolathur in Chennai had filed a writ petition urging the High Court to declare that the word ‘female,’ found in Section 7 of the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act of 1956 as well as the central guidelines governing the adoption of children, would include ‘transgender women’ too.

During the course of hearing of the case, the Chief Justice pointed out that the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015 lays down elaborate procedures to be followed for adoption and the eligibility criteria for adoptive parents living in India as well as for inter country adoption.

In pursuance of the statutory provisions, the MoCWD had established a nodal body named Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to monitor and regulate in-country as well as inter-country adoptions in accordance with the provisions of the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993 ratified by the Centre in 2003.

Indian laws exclude transpersons

Nevertheless, the writ petitioner had complained to the court that the the Indian adoption laws and regulations exclude the transgender persons completely and permit only men and women, either as a couple or as a single parent, to adopt children subject to the condition that a single male shall not be eligible to adopt a girl child.

Wondering how the transgender persons could be excluded from the adoption laws, the Chief Justice highlighted that Section 8 of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019 imposes several obligations on both the Centre as well as the State governments for integrating them into the mainstream society.

He insisted that the MoCWD must file an affidavit by December 4 explaining “as to why the CARA guidelines have so far not been amended or no guidelines have been issued in fulfillment of the statutory obligation under Section 8 of the Act of 2019 to include transgenders also for the purpose of statutory adoption as envisaged under the Juvenile Justice Act.”