The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the Centre on a petition challenging the exclusion of gay men, transgender persons and women sex workers from donating blood, PTI reported.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also sought responses from the National Aids Control Organisation and the National Blood Transfusion Council.

Guidelines of the National Aids Control Organisation and the National Blood Transfusion Council that function under the Union health and family welfare ministry bar transgender persons, female sex workers and homosexual men from being blood donors.

The Guidelines on Blood Donor Selection and Blood Donor Referral were notified by the Centre in 2017.

The petition in the Supreme Court questioned the validity of the guidelines, contending that it violates the right to equality, dignity and life protected under the Constitution, The Hindu reported.

The plea also argued that the guidelines are based on a “highly prejudicial and presumptive” view of gay men from the 1980s in the United States when the Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, epidemic started, reported Bar and Bench.

AIDS is caused by human immunodeficiency virus. The virus spreads through the body fluids of an infected person, including blood.

The petitioner argued that since the 1980s, many countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada have revisited these views.

In March 2023, the Union health and family welfare ministry, while responding to another petition had claimed that there was substantial evidence to demonstrate that “transgender persons, men having sex with men and female sex workers are at risk for HIV, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C”, reported The Hindu.