India, June 3 -- The Kerala high court on Monday ruled that a transgender couple can be listed simply as "parents", rather than "mother" and "father", on their child's birth certificate, in a decision that marks a significant moment in the legal recognition of non-traditional families and gender identity in official documents.

The order was passed by a vacation bench of justice Ziyad Rahman AA, who directed Kozhikode municipal authorities to replace gendered parental terms with the gender-neutral designation "parent" for both individuals.

The petitioners -Zahhad, a trans man, and Ziya Paval, a trans woman -are believed to be Kerala's first openly transgender couple to have a biological child. Their journey to parenthood captured nationa...