A guideline from India’s National Blood Transfusion Council and the National AIDS Control Organization under the Health and Family Welfare Ministry permanently prohibits men who have sex with men from donating blood.
This prohibition, however, may change with the Supreme Court reviewing a challenge to the constitutionality to the 2017 blood donor rule.
The Supreme Court on July 30 agreed to hear the challenge that a gay man from Delhi — Shariff D. Rangnekar, director of the Rainbow Literature Festival — brought.
Lawyer Rohin Bhatt drafted the complaint and Ibad Mushtaq filed it. The rule also applies to transgender people, female sex workers, and LGBTQ people.