Facts:
A petition was filed by a parents of a child born with intersex variations seeking
mandamus to conduct a genital reconstructive surgery to bring the child up as female.
Though the Karyotype Report-46XX was indicative of the child being female, no doctor
was willing to conduct the surgery without direction from a competent court.
Court Decision and Reasoning:
The Court held that as the parents were looking for permission to conduct non
consensual sex affirmative surgery, the Karyotype Report-46XX was not sufficient, as
it does not rule out the possibility of the child developing male tendencies later in life.
The Court found that medical intervention was not immediately necessary and pointed
to previous judgments that have dealt with gender affirmative surgery for intersex
children, with the Tamil Nadu government even issuing a ban against sex
reassignment surgeries for intersex children.
Significance:
In this case, the Court upheld the right of a minor to be protected from non-consensual
medical interventions, even by the parents or guardians and thus upheld the right to
self-determination.