India, May 14 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the exclusion of transgender persons as blood donors, finding no rationale behind branding an entire community as "risky" and gave Centre time to address their concerns of discrimination without compromising on medical precautions.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging guidelines issued by the National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC), which prevented transgender persons, men having sex with men (MSM) and female sex workers from donating blood for being at "high risk" for HIV, Hepatitis B or C infections.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said, "Are we going to brand all transgenders as risky and stigmatise them. You cannot say that all transge...