New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice on a plea filed by the central government, seeking to transfer a clutch of petitions pending in various high courts challenging the Transgender Persons Protection of Rights (Amendment) Act, 2026.Issuing the notice, a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and justice V Mohana also ordered that the proceedings in the high courts would remain stayed till further orders.The bench verbally observed that it would be preferable for all challenges to be heard together rather than allowing parallel proceedings to continue in different high courts."Either we will give it to one high court or we ourselves will decide instead of having a scattered opinion," CJI Kant remarked. Several pleas have been filed seeking the transfer of petitions pending in the Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi high courts.Appearing on behalf of the Centre, solicitor general Tushar Mehta requested that the petitions, if transferred to the Supreme Court, be placed before a three-judge bench, since the 2014 judgement in the NALSA case, upon which reliance is placed on the petitioners challenging the 2026 amendment, is rendered by a two-judge bench. Mehta added that the high courts "may find it difficult to take a view contrary" to the judgement rendered by the two-judge bench.Issuing a notice on the plea, the bench directed that all proceedings pending before various high courts challenging the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026, shall remain stayed.Last month, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the central government on pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026. The bench had, last month, however, refused to stay the operation of the new law. "No question of any interim stay," CJI Kant had verbally remarked then.The Act introduced sweeping changes to the legal framework governing the recognition, rights and protection of transgenders. The court had last month also issued notice on a plea filed by two trans men, Manveer Yadav and Vishwanath Maithil, who challenged their exclusion from the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019.Their plea argues that in the absence of a transgender certificate, trans men are being denied access to medical procedures and are unable to avail benefits under schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, SMILE Yojana and various scholarships.The Act had received Presidential assent on March 31. It redefines who qualifies as a "transgender", while also strengthening penal provisions to address serious offences such as forced gender identity and bodily harm.