Myra Grace Bandikalla, an employee with the Airports Authority of India (AAI), has sued the company for refusing to issue a No Objection Certificate, which she requires in order to apply for a new passport, without which she can’t travel to Bangkok for a sex-change surgery.
A report in Mumbai Mirror states that Myra, 33, who was born as Swaroop Bandikalla, is an Air Traffic Control manager, and believes that she is a woman trapped in a man’s body.
Bandikalla alleges that despite the many requests she had made to the company to change her name in the official records, they refused, as a result of which she can’t attend her surgery, which is scheduled to take place in Bangkok in September.
She also alleged gender-discrimination by her colleagues, saying they often bullied her and that she was denied access to the women’s washroom.
The internal communications of the company had however responded to her requests, by saying that her name could only be changed in the official documents after she underwent sex-change and produced the relevant documentation to prove the same.
She also alleged that an attempt was made by the company to transfer her to the Shirdi airport, where she wouldn’t be able to undergo the ongoing treatment. This order was only cancelled after she had demanded a lengthy correspondence with the top AAI officials, the report added.
On account of the surgery being just a few months away, Bandikalla approached a Mumbai High Court division bench comprising Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Girish Kulkarni, and filed a petition, and was represented by counsel Zaid Ansari and Advocate Pranali Mhaske.
What Did the Petition State?
In her petition Bandikalla referred to the Supreme Court’s NALSA judgement, which stressed on acknowledging the difference between an individual’s sexual identity and sexual orientation, the report added.
The judgement states that a surgery can’t be insisted upon as a legal requirement of gender identity. Bandikalla’s lawyers, quoting the SC’s judgement in their petition, said:
“Each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom and no one shall be forced to undergo medical procedures, including a sex reassignment surgery, sterilisation or hormonal therapy, as a requirement for legal recognition of their gender identity.”
Bandikalla had joined the AAI in 2010. She earlier stated that she had informed the company about her diagnosis in May 2017 and had given her superiors the routine updates as to her condition, as in 2016, she had been diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria’.
Accordingly, the doctors had advised her to undergo a hormone replacement therapy (HRT), psychotherapy and a sex reassignment surgery, the Mumbai Mirror report added.
(With inputs from Mumbai Mirror)
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