The Ministry of Finance on Thursday said there are no restrictions on persons belonging to the LGBTQ community to open a joint bank account or make a queer person a nominee.
The clarification for Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT community) came in an advisory of the finance ministry dated August 28.
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 the queer relationship as a nominee to receive the balance in the account in the event of the account holder, the finance ministry said in the advisory.
The advisory comes in view of a Supreme Court order of October 17 last year in the case of Supriyo@Supriya Chakraborty and another vs Union of India (Writ Petition Civil No. 1011/2022).
Following the Supreme Court judgment dated October 17, 2023, the Centre in April 2024 constituted a six-member committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary to examine the various issues relating to the queer community.
The six-member panel was asked to examine measures that can be taken to ensure there is no discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in access to goods and services and measures that can be taken to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community does not face any threat of violence, harassment or coercion.
A clarification over bank accounts has been issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) also to all the scheduled commercial banks on August 21, 2024, the advisory by the Department of Financial Services under the finance ministry said.
In 2015, the RBI directed banks to include a separate column 'third gender' in all their forms and applications to help transgender persons open bank accounts and avail of related services.
Following the 2015 order, several banks launched services catering to transgender.
ESAF Small Finance Bank Ltd, in 2022, launched a 'Rainbow Savings Account' meant for the transgender community, offering several features, including high savings rates and advanced debit card facilities.
