Finance Ministry Confirms Queer Couples Can Open Joint Bank Accounts; Activists Raise 'Pinkwashing' Concerns

Gay persons can open joint bank accounts and name their partner as a nominee for the funds in the account, the Union finance ministry has said.

An advisory issued on August 28 says, "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."

Details of The Advisory Issued By Finance Ministry

The advisory adds that the Reserve Bank of India also issued a clarification to all banks on the subject.The advisory is the result of the October 17, 2023 Supreme Court order in the Supriyo Chakraborty case when a five-member bench declined to grant marriage rights to queer people under current laws. However, the court accepted a government proposal to set up a panel headed by the cabinet secretary to consider granting LGBTQ couples other rights and privileges available to heterosexual couples in public services like banking. The committee has been holding consultation sessions with the queer community, including one held a month ago in Delhi. Ankit Bhuptani, Mumbai based queer rights activist who was part of the meeting, said the order represented the progress made in gay rights since 2014 when the courts decriminalised homosexuality.

Bhuptani said on microblogging site X: 'Overjoyed to see the Indian Government implementing financial inclusion for Queer couples in the banking system, just 4 weeks after our community consultation! This adds to the remarkable progress made in India since 2014: Decriminalization of homosexuality, Transgender Persons Act, National Committee on Trans rights, and the ban on forced Queer conversion therapy. Thank you for listening, inviting us to the consultation, and turning our discussions into reality.'

NGO Leader Hails Finance Ministry's Directive as a Major Step Forward for Queer Rights

Savio Mascarenhas, an entrepreneur who runs an NGO Color Positive, said the directive was a big step. "This affects people directly. Despite them doing this for fireworks, it will help someone who is in love and wants to leave something for their partner when they are gone," said Mascarenhas, who added that this provided some control over where one's money goes without having to hide a same-sex life partner as a business associate.

Queer Activists Call The Move 'Pinkwashing'

However, there were also opinions that the order is inconsequential. Rohin Bhatt, Supreme Court lawyer, and queer rights activist called it 'pinkwashing', a term for the deployment of messages that are superficially sympathetic towards the LGBTQ community but have little or nothing to do with equality or inclusion. Bhatt called it a 'legal jugad' and a 'legal juggernaut' used by the government to sidestep the issue of equal marriage rights for gay people.

"It is a clarification, number one. Number two, even prior to the said advisory being issued, there was no prohibition under any law that two people were not related to each other. So, as such, into that end, this is nothing new," said Bhatt. "The idea seems to be that we will do whatever is possible without taking the issue of marriage to parliament or without taking civil unions to parliament or taking the issue of chosen families to parliament."

Bhatt said that the new directives have been issued under the garb of Supriya Chakraborty. "Supriyo Chakrabarti was about marriage, getting right to marriage. And that marriage debate is lost. Because the moment you have a marriage, all of this won't be required," said Bhatt.

Bhuptani argued that the government directive was important. "But at the same time, we as a community need to also understand that social change is a slow process and we should always welcome and celebrate the small milestones we achieve towards a larger equality," he said. "All I am saying is, irrespective of the government, irrespective of the agency who does it because then people would say that because it is the Supreme Court who did it. All I'm saying is, look, we as a queer community, most of us who are alive today and who are 20 plus have been born as criminals in this country. We are no longer criminals in this country.