Delhi Police Constable’s Identity Struggle After Gender Change
A Delhi Police constable's gender change request gets stuck due to lack of departmental rules for gender identity updates in official records.
Delhi Police Constable’s Struggle for Gender Change: How Bureaucratic Rules are Hindering the Update of Her New Identity After Sex Change
Renu Kumari, a constable with Delhi Police, has landed in a bureaucratic stalemate after a sex change. A female constable when recruited to the police, she became male after an operation to change sex. The records of Delhi Police do not know this changed identity, and Renu is facing further bureaucratic obstacles in getting her gender changed in official files.
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Renu’s roller coaster ride of change in official records began in February 2020, when she approached the Delhi Police Headquarter for change of gender. She approached the Home Department to which the matter escalated, but the response was unsatisfactory.
So Renu approached the then Special Commissioner (Headquarters) directly, who opined that no formal permission was required in such a case of change in gender because it was a personal decision. With this, Renu started taking the new direction from March 2023 followed by a hospital medical note stating that the change had taken place in May 2023.
She legally changed her name to a male identity through gazette notification in August 2023. That is the imperative step for making all her legal documents conformant to her new gender identity. Equipped with the official name change, she approached the Delhi Police Headquarters to apply for a similar correction in police records by updating her name and gender.
While the police department agreed to update her name in the records, there was a roadblock as far as changing her gender is concerned. According to internal sources, the department confirmed that while a name change is permissible, no rule exists that specifically addresses the issue of recognition of a change in gender in the official records. This limbo has kept Renu waiting for legal opinions for determining the way forward.
This case therefore highlights a significant lacuna in the police department’s policies about gender transition change, but it falls in a larger category of how such changes need to be managed within the records of an institution. And thus, as the case unfolds further, questions arise regarding proper guidelines and reforms that should ensure recognition of rights of a transgender person within all sectors, including law enforcement.
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