The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that a ‘certificate of identity’ issued by the district magistrate under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, will now be accepted as valid documentation for applying for a PAN card.
Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah noted that the Union government has broadly agreed to this request and might consider formalizing it in the rules for greater clarity. The court had previously requested the Union’s response, which has been supportive of the petition’s demands.
The case in question involves a 2018 plea by a transgender individual who faced difficulties linking her PAN card with her Aadhaar card due to the absence of a ‘third gender’ option on the PAN card.
Social activist Reshma Prasad from Bihar had requested the Centre to introduce a separate third gender category on PAN cards to allow transgender individuals to match their PAN with Aadhaar for accurate identity verification.
Prasad explained that she had initially enrolled for a PAN card in 2012 under the male gender category and received tax returns for the years 2015-16 and 2016-17 in this category. After a Supreme Court ruling allowed a third gender category on Aadhaar, she had updated her status to transgender on her Aadhaar card.
