The Supreme Court has granted the right of gender self-identification to individuals.
The Nepali laws currently recognize males, females and others as three types of gender.
The bench of Chief Justice Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha and Justice Kumar Chudal issuing its verdict in the petition filed by Rukshana Kapali of Lalitpur has ruled that the state should recognize the gender based on self-experience of the individual.
Kapali had moved the SC complaining that the state organs refused to mention her self-identified gender in her personal details.
The SC has issued a mandamus ordering the state organs to mention her gender as woman in all her personal documents on the basis of her self-experience. It has also issued mandamus instructing the state bodies to maintain privacy about her previous gender.
The Apex Court reminding that the Constitution has vested the rights of gender identity on the individual has stressed that the person has the rights to identify which gender she belongs to. It has also stated that gender identity is incorporated in the right to live with dignity and pointed that not recognizing gender identity on the basis of self-experience and continuing recognition of their biological gender violates that right. .
