LGBTO+ Persons Can Open Joint Bank Accounts; Says Finance Ministry

The Finance Ministry on August 29 issue an advisory saying there are no restrictions for people of the LGBTQ community to open a joint bank account and to nominate a person in a queer relationship as a nominee. Department of Financial Services posted the advisory on their social media platform X. This advisory comes after the Supreme Court's order in October 17, 2023, in the case of Supriyo@Supriya Chakraborty and another vs Union of India.

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 the queer relationship as a nominee to receive the balance in the account, in the event of death of the account holder. A clarification in this regard has been sent by the Reserve Bank of India to all Scheduled Commercial Banks on August 21.”

After the Supreme Court's decision on October 17, 2023, the Centre formed a six-member committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary in April 2024 to investigate different issues affecting the LGBTQ community. The panel was assigned with investigating measures that can be implemented to ensure that LGBTQ+ persons are not discriminated against with regards to goods and services, as well as measures to ensure that the LGBTQ+ community is not threatened with violence, harassment, or coercion.

In 2015, the RBI advised banks to add a separate 'third gender' category on all forms and applications to help transgender people in opening bank accounts and getting related benefits. Following the 2015 order, many banks began offering transgender-specific services.