New Delhi, May 15 -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the Centre to consult experts for a revision of the country's blood donation guidelines as it questioned the rationale behind excluding transgender persons branding the community "high risk".

The bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the guidelines issued by National Blood Transfusion Council (NBTC) in 2017 which prevented "transgenders, 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.

"What is worrying me is are we going to brand all transgender persons as risk, thus, indirectly stigmatising the transgender community...this is something...