For people belonging to the LGBTQ community, there are no longer any restrictions on opening a joint bank account or nominating a person in a queer relationship as a beneficiary, the Finance Ministry said.
"This is to clarify that there are no restrictions for persons of the queer community to open a joint bank account and also to nominate a person in a queer relationship as a nominee to receive the balance in the account in the event of the account holder," read an advisory that the ministry shared on August 28.
The advisory concerning the LGBTQ community was prompted by the Supreme Court order passed on October 17, 2023, in the case of Supriyo@Supriya Chakraborty and another vs Union of India.
The posted advisory also noted that a clarification in this regard had been issued on August 21 to all the commercial banks by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The RBI had, in 2015, directed banks to include a separate column labelled 'third gender' in all the forms and applications to help people identifying as transgenders to open bank accounts and make use of the services available.
The RBI order triggered a domino effect, causing numerous other banks to offer services to cater to the transgender community.
In 2022, for example, ESAF Small Finance Bank Ltd, launched a 'Rainbow Savings Account' scheme exclusively for the transgender community. The scheme offered various features, including high savings rates and debit card offers, news agency PTI reported.
After the Supreme Court ruling on October 17, 2023, the Centre constituted a six-member committee in April 2024, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, to examine the various issues relating to the LGBTQ+ community.
The panel's responsibility was straightforward: to find measures and steps that could be taken to ensure the LBGTQ+ community was not facing discrimination, and that people of the community had equal access to services and measures that could be taken to ensure that they did not face violence or harassment as was commonly noticed.
