New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Centre and Delhi Police to inform it about the steps being taken to lay down an SOP for probe agencies when interrogating, arresting or detaining a transgender person.A bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued notices to central govt, police as well as Delhi govt on a PIL by law student Taaran Chandna, who said that while Delhi Police has a standing order for the arrest of women and senior citizens, it is “wholly silent” on transgender persons.The petitioner submitted that in May, NHRC issued the Advisory for Ensuring the Welfare of Transgender Persons, 2.0 for the formulation of an SOP to govern the arrest, detention, search, interrogation and imprisonment of transgender persons. However, no such SOP or guideline has been formed for Delhi, he said.The bench, while asking “the Union of India, Delhi Police and state govt to file their reply,” said that “in the meantime, we direct that the advisory issued in May 2026 shall be considered and appropriate steps as permissible in law shall be taken.”The court listed the matter for Nov 18.In the PIL, Chandna said the SOP governing the arrest and personal search of transgender persons by Delhi Police was needed to protect their fundamental rights to bodily integrity, dignity, equality and non-discrimination guaranteed under the Constitution.The “concrete and continuing harm” due to the SOP “vacuum” can be seen when the police in May 2025 arrested three transgender persons, the plea said. It alleged that despite one of them possessing female genital anatomy and another holding a valid certificate of identity, all three were physically searched by a male police officer “without any enquiry into their gender identity, without seeking self-declaration, and without consent”.
