The Tamil Nadu government on Friday informed the Madras High Court that the state will extend the COVID-19 assistance of Rs 4,000 to all trans persons irrespective of whether they possessed the registration cards. Advocate-General (AG) R Shanmugasundaram told the first bench of the Madras High that the only reservation of the state is that while it may not insist on strict registration documents or identity proof, the grant should not be abused and some form of recording of the name and address of the beneficiary should be followed.
The bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice R Subbiah recorded this and told the AG to find out a modality by which the transgenders receive the benefit without any misuse of the same. The bench was passing further interim orders on a Public Interest Litigation petition from TransRightsNow Collective founder Grace Banu, from Thoothukudi. The trans rights activist had moved to Madras High Court seeking extension of the COVID-19 cash relief to all the transgender persons in the state even though they did not have valid registration or identification papers.
On June 14, the High Court had said that the state should consider whether all applicants who have applied to the State Welfare Board for an ID as a transgender person by May 31, 2021 could be considered so, so that they can avail the benefits extended to the community by the state, reported LiveLaw. According to the report, the state had said that nearly 3,000 beneficiaries had received the money, however, an additional 8,493 trans persons were entitled to receive the assistance.
The Tamil Nadu government had earlier informed the court that it would be giving assistance of Rs 2,000 to the 8,493 trans persons who did not have identity cards.
A report in The New Indian Express stated that the plea was adjourned to July 9 for the state government to file a report on whether any transgender person has been left out.
(With PTI inputs)