Madras High Court: The bench of Sanjib Banerjee, CJ and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, J has issued notice to the Tamil Nadu Government in a plea seeking direction to extend Covid 19 assistance of Rs. 4000 to all transgenders, irrespective of whether they hold a ration card or not.
Prayers before the Court:
(i) to issue a Corrigendum to the G.O.(Ms) 37 dated 7.5.2021 of the Department of Cooperation, Food and Consumer Protection to extend Covid-19 cash relief Rs.4000/- to transgender persons in Tamil Nadu who do not possess Ration Cards;
(ii) direct that the first installment of Rs.2000/- of cash relief to be paid in the month of May 2021 under the G.O.(Ms) 37 dated 07.05.2021 is also paid to transgender persons who do not have ration cards, either on the basis of their transgender identity cards or any other government ID;
(iii) to conduct awareness programmes for Transgender Persons in the State of Tamil Nadu regarding Covid-19 Vaccination, especially to clarify and assure them on the safety of vaccines for those who are undergoing hormone therapy and other treatment; and
(iv) to conduct special vaccination drivers for transgender persons in Tamil Nadu by assisting them to register online and get special vaccination slots in local community health centres.
[Grace Bano v. Chief Secretary Government of Tamil Nadu, W.P.No.12035 of 2021, order dated 20.05.2021]
For Petitioner : Ms.Jayna Kothari, S.C. For Mr.C.Prabhu
For Respondents : Mr.R.Shanmughasundaram Advocate General, Assisted by Mrs. A.Srijayanthi, Spl.G.P.
