M Anusuya: Woman IRS officer changes gender, government updates records

NEW DELHI: In probably a first in India's civil services history, a woman IRS officer, posted as joint commissioner in the regional bench of Central Excise Customs Excise & Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), Hyderabad, would be officially regarded as a male civil servant from Tuesday.
Union finance ministry in an order on Tuesday said: "Ms M Anusuya, an IRS officer of 2013 batch, presently posted as Joint Commissioner in the office of Chief Commissioner (AR), CESTAT, Hyderabad, has requested for change of her name from Ms M Anusuya to Mr M Anukathir Surya and gender from female to male."
"The request of Ms M Anusuya has been considered.Henceforth, the officer will be recognised as 'Mr M Anukathir Surya' in all official records," said the order from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, Department of Revenue.
After the April 15, 2014 judgment of SC in NALSA case recognised third gender and ruled that gender identity is a personal choice, whether or not a person undergoes sex reassignment surgery (SRS), a male Odisha commercial tax officer, five years after joining the Odisha Financial Services, had decided to change her gender to female in 2015 and got officially recognised as Aishwarya Rituparna Pradhan.
In the April 2014 judgment SC had said, "Sexual orientation refers to an individual's enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction. Sexual orientation includes transgender and gender-variant people with heavy sexual orientation and their sexual orientation may or may not change during or after gender transmission..."