Transgenders fundamental right to marry
Introduction
Third Gender, One of the most obvious aspects of a person's identity today, in a cultural, national
and global sense, is the collegial relationship that he or she shares with another person, which
eventually gives rise to a shared, unified and co-dependent recognition of both as one under the
law; particular, as regards the resolution of socio-family problems such as upbringing,
guardianship, marriage, succession and inheritance among others . The word "relationship"
mentioned above is connotative of marriage and the following paper attempts to look at this
relationship from the perspective of a third gender Hindu Indian national, in its connection with
the different aspects of one's personal identity as a individual. Although the right to marry such
an individual, particularly as seen against the backdrop of the country's current communal
culture, may be recognized as some sort of heterodoxy, it still falls short of qualifying as
something that could be called, at least, "heretical" or even illegal.
The right to marry, now a fundamental right in India, requires individuals to choose a partner
according to their own free will, and that right cannot be infringed by the State.4 In the Indian
sense, the right to life and personal freedom provided for in Article 21 of the Constitution does
not simply provide for a physical existence, but implies the existence of a qualitatively human
life.5Recognition of inherent human dignity is a requirement for the protection of rights under
Article 21.6 Accordingly, Indian courts have interpreted marriage as an essential right under
Article 21 of the Constitution as being necessary for the protection of individual dignity and for
the enjoyment of a meaningful human life.7 When marriage is such an important civil right that
is essential to each and every citizen of the world, is it justifiable to victimize people merely on
the grounds of their non-conformity to a stereotyped distinction of binary genders?
Unfortunately, even though the right to marriage has been recognized as a fundamental right
according to one's own choice, the contemporary social scenario affecting third gender citizens
denies them of that fundamental right. The personal law that respects Hindu marriage and law
enforcement agencies makes no attempt to guarantee the fundamental right of third gender
people to marry any individual of their own choice.
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