UPPSC PYQ 1 (2020) — Geography
Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
- Florida current
- Canary current
- Agulhas current
- Kurile current
Answer: C. Agulhas current
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A Division Bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, on July 28, 2026, declined to grant an interim stay on the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, but issued notice to the Union Government, returnable in four weeks, and referred the constitutional challenge to a three-judge bench. The amended law narrows the definition of "transgender person" under Section 2(k) and requires a medical board's recommendation before a District Magistrate can issue a transgender identity certificate — reversing the self-identification model that had operated since 2020. For aspirants preparing for UPSC, UPPSC, MPSC, and other state PSC exams, this topic is directly relevant for GS Paper 2 (Fundamental Rights, Welfare Schemes for Vulnerable Sections) and has recurring salience given the NALSA judgment's continuing role in gender-identity jurisprudence.
The petitioners argue the amendment violates Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21, and directly conflicts with the Supreme Court's 2014 NALSA ruling, which held that self-perceived gender identity is a facet of personal autonomy and dignity protected under the Constitution. The Bench's decision not to stay the law, while still keeping the constitutional question alive before a larger bench, sets up one of the more closely watched pending transgender-rights cases in India.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019, and its 2020 rules, followed the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) v. Union of India (2014) 5 SCC 438, which recognised transgender persons as a "third gender" and held that the right to self-identify one's gender — without any requirement of surgery or medical proof — flows from Articles 14, 15, 16, 19, and 21. The 2019 Act operationalised this by allowing a person to obtain a transgender identity certificate from a District Magistrate on the basis of a self-declaration, without mandatory medical intervention.
The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 changes this framework by amending Section 2(k)'s definition and introducing a requirement that a medical board recommend the certificate before the District Magistrate acts, alongside new provisions under Section 18 creating additional offences. This is widely read as a shift away from the self-determination model back toward a medical-verification model, prompting the current constitutional challenge.
The Order
What the Amendment Changes
Petitioners' Constitutional Challenge
Wider Context
Syllabus relevance: UPSC GS Paper 2 — Fundamental Rights, Government Policies for Vulnerable Sections; state PSC mains under Social Justice and Polity.
Political and Constitutional Dimensions The case squarely tests whether Parliament can legislatively narrow a right that the Supreme Court had earlier grounded directly in Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 through the NALSA judgment. Because NALSA read self-identification into fundamental rights rather than treating it as a purely statutory concession, the amendment's medical-board requirement raises a live question about the limits of legislative override of constitutional interpretation — a recurring theme wherever Parliament amends a right-bearing statute after a rights-expanding judgment.
Economic and Financial Dimensions Delays or added bureaucratic layers in certificate issuance can directly affect access to reservation benefits, welfare scheme enrolment (including SMILE), and formal-sector employment that require valid identity documents, compounding pre-existing economic marginalisation of transgender persons in India's labour market.
Social Dimensions The case reopens the debate between self-determination and medical-gatekeeping models of gender-identity recognition — a distinction with direct dignity implications, since mandatory medical board review can be experienced as invasive and stigmatising by the community it is meant to serve.
Governance and Administrative Dimensions Implementation now requires coordination between State Health Departments (for constituting medical boards), the District Magistrate's office, and the National Council for Transgender Persons, adding an administrative layer that varies in capacity across states and could produce inconsistent certification timelines nationally.
International Perspective Globally, gender-recognition law has moved toward self-declaration models — Argentina's 2012 Gender Identity Law and Ireland's 2015 Gender Recognition Act both permit certification on the basis of self-declaration alone. India's 2026 amendment moves in the opposite direction, closer to older medical-certification regimes such as the UK's original 2004 Gender Recognition Act (since reformed), making the Indian case a notable outlier against the broader international trend.
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Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
Answer: C. Agulhas current
Without green house effect, the average temperature of earth surface would be
Answer: B. –18°C
1. In Ease of Doing Business Report 2020, India's rank is 63. 2. India ranking for Ease of Doing Business in the year 2019 was 77.
With reference to the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Report, which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?
Answer: B. 2 only
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Geography · 2020Which of the following ocean currents is associated with Indian Ocean?
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