On 14^th June 2021, in the case of Grace Banu v. The Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu Secretariat, The Madras High Court directed the State Government to take into consideration that, whether those applicants who applied to the Transgender Board in before 31^st May 2021 can be legally called as transgenders or not. This must be done in order to avail the benefits announced by the State.

This issue was raised when Grace Banu Ganeshan, a Transgender Right activists filed a PIL to highlight the issue of non-possession of Ration cards by Transgender people in the state of Tamil Nadu. It was duly submitted that not all the Transgenders have proper Identification documents validated by the government organisations to mark their presence in the society. This drawback will cause hindrance to the Transgender people for availing benefits announced by the State Government.

The Tamil Nadu Government in the month of May, submitted before The Madras High Court that they shall take into consideration the extension of COVID 19 relief of Rs. 4000/- to the Transgender people of Tamil Nadu sympathetically. Even if they do not possess Ration cards, they will still be eligible to receive the monetory relief by the state Government. So as the petitioner stated that lack of identification documents might debar the Transgender people to avail these benefits.

On this, the Court directed the states that, all those applicants who applied to the Transgender Board before 31^st May, 2021 may be considered under the category of Transgenders for the purpose of seeking benefits announced by the State of Tamil Nadu and it will also be extended to already recognised Transgenders.

– Animesh Raizada, Intern