A man who had undergone gender realignment surgery to become a woman yesterday filed a constitutional application in the First Hall of the Civil Court claiming that the refusal by the Director of Public Registry to allow her to marry a man was in violation of her fundamental human rights.

Joanne Cassar filed her application against the Director of Public Registry and the Attorney General.

She said that after undergoing surgery she had requested the courts to declare that she was a woman and to effect the necessary changes to her birth certificate.

In June 2006, the First Hall of the Civil Court upheld her request and her birth certificate was amended to show that she was now a woman.

Ms Cassar had applied for banns to marry a man but her application was denied by the Director of Public Registry. She had asked the courts to overturn the decision and her case was decided in her favour by the Court of Voluntary Jurisdiction.

However, the director contested the ruling and, last May, the First Hall of the Civil Court overturned the first court's ruling and held that the annotation that had taken place to Ms Cassar's birth certificate following the June 2006 judgment was only there to protect her privacy. The annotation did not entitle her to be considered as a woman for the purposes of marriage.

In her constitutional application, Ms Cassar said that the judgment was in violation of her fundamental human rights. Case law of the European Court of Human Rights had established that one could not, for biological reasons, not recognise the legal effects of a sex change. Maltese law did not recognise the new sex acquired by transsexuals and this was in violation of her fundamental human rights, Ms Cassar argued.

She concluded by calling upon the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, to declare that her rights had been violated and to declare that the director could not refuse to publish the banns for her to marry a man.

Lawyers Josè Herrera and David Camilleri appeared for Ms Cassar.