NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh refuses to defend changes to trans rights law in SC; Uttarakhand says law beneficial

The NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh government, in an affidavit in the Supreme Court, has refused to defend the Centre’s controversial 2026 amendments to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act.

The court is presently hearing at least a dozen petitions challenging the law. The State, in the affidavit filed in August, told the court that it had no role in enacting the Act, and that the constitutional validity of the law is “primarily a matter for the Union of India”.

The Union government had introduced amendments to the law earlier this year, removing provisions that guaranteed transgender people the right to their “self-perceived gender identity” and limiting the definition of a “transgender person” to physiological characteristics. The amendments triggered widespread protests across the country and led members of the government’s National Council for Transgender Persons to resign over the changes, even as Parliament passed the Bill and the government notified it.