Transpersons, men having sex with men, sex workers cannot donate blood, Centre insists in Supreme Court

The Union government on Thursday (March 12, 2026) stood firm by its 2017 guidelines which exclude transgender people, men having sex with men (MSM), and female sex workers from donating blood. Insisting that these are ‘at risk’ population groups, the Centre told the Supreme Court that sometimes, a public health perspective must trump individual rights.

Appearing before a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Additional Solicitor General Aishwary Bhati said the government’s stance was based on expert advice, and kept the larger public interest in mind. Any dilution in the guidelines would put lives at risk, the law officer submitted.

The court was hearing a series of petitions challenging the ‘Guidelines on Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral, 2017’, issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council and the National Aids Control Organisation.

‘Discrimination based on sexuality, gender identity’

Senior advocate Jayna Kothari, for the petitioners, questioned the guidelines, arguing that sections of the population cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.

Ms. Kothari said that more comprehensive tests, such Nucleic Acid Testing — a highly sensitive molecular technique used to detect the genetic material (DNA or RNA) of viruses like HIV, Hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C in donated blood — could be a more medically sound way to cover health risks to blood transfusion recipients.

The senior advocate argued that a heterosexual person could also pose a risk to recipients. “The risky behaviour is the unprotected sexual act. Not my identity. There can be a heterosexual person who may have had a risky act,” Ms. Kothari reasoned.

Public health perspective

The court, however, expressed its reluctance to intervene, pointing to poor patients who avail free blood transfusion facilities, unable to afford private hospitals. Even a one percent chance of infection should be avoided, the Bench said, agreeing to hear the case in detail at a later date.

The petitions seek to strike down clauses in the Blood Donor Selection Criteria of the Guidelines for Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral of 2017, which permanently defers these population groups from donating blood, on account of being at risk for HIV, a hepatitis infection or Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTIs).

“The issue should be judged from the lens of a public health perspective rather than that of an individual rights perspective… Even on the balance of individual rights of the blood donor versus the rights of the recipient, the right of the recipient to receive a safe blood transfusion far outweighs the right of an individual to donate blood,” the Ministry had responded in a 2023 affidavit.