AAI tells HC it has updated record of employee who changed sex

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) informed the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it has updated an employee's records after the person underwent a sex change surgery and changed the gender from male to female.

The 33-year-old employee moved the high court last year seeking a direction to the AAI to update its records and issue her a No Objection Certificate (NOC) so that she could travel to Bangkok for a sex reassignment surgery.

The AAI had said it could not update its records until the petitioner underwent the surgery.

As interim relief, another bench of the high court had directed the AAI to incorporate her new name and gender in its records.

On Tuesday, AAI counsel Kavita Anchan told a bench led by Justice Akil Kureshi that in July last year it issued the NOC to the petitioner, following which she underwent the surgery successfully.

The AAI subsequently updated her records and all other relevant details, said advocate Anchan.

"We (AAI) had never had any objection to her gender or or her request for surgery. However, the petitioner joined work at AAI as a male and after nine years, decided to change her gender. We needed to wait for the surgery since our records are government documents and could not have been changed just like that," Anchan added.

The high court disposed of the case following the AAI lawyer's submission.

Her petition, filed in June last year, contended that though born male, she suffered from gender identity disorder.

She had undergone hormonal therapies and was contemplating a sex reassignment surgery, she said, adding that she had already changed her name and gender on her PAN and Aadhaar cards.