New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday upheld a Madras High Court judgment declaring unconstitutional a Tamil Nadu government order allowing people from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities and Scheduled Castes to claim Backward Class (Muslim) reservation benefits after converting to Islam.
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s special leave petition (SLP) challenging the Madras High Court’s judgment, which had struck down the government order issued March 9, 2024.
The apex court upheld the High Court’s ruling on constitutional principles, holding that a person belonging to a Backward Class or Scheduled Caste in the Hindu social order cannot automatically carry forward the benefit of reservation after embracing another religion.
The Supreme Court observed that social backwardness associated with a person’s original religious and caste identity cannot simply be transferred to a different religious community following conversion.
The case arose from a plea filed by Sameer Ahamed N., who was born into a Hindu family and converted to Islam in 2015. He subsequently sought a community certificate recognising him as a Muslim Lebbai, but his application was rejected by the revenue authorities in Tamil Nadu.
The Madras High Court had upheld the rejection and declared unconstitutional the Government Order (G.O.) No. 31, issued on March 9, 2024, which permitted converts from BC, MBC, Denotified Communities and Scheduled Castes to be treated as Backward Class Muslims for reservation purposes.
In its judgment, the High Court said the government could not use an executive order to override binding judicial precedents governing the consequences of conversion to Islam. “When a Hindu gets converted to Islam, he becomes just a Mussalman, and his place in Muslim society is not determined by the caste to which he belonged before his conversion,” a Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P.B. Balaji had observed, referring to an earlier Madras High Court judgment.
The High Court further held that the government order was arbitrary because it sought to accommodate people from distinct reservation categories, including Scheduled Castes and Backwards Classes, within the same category of Backwards Class Muslims.
The Madras High Court concluded that a person converting to Islam could not claim membership of one of the notified Backward Class Muslim communities merely on the basis of conversion.
“As a corollary, we hold that a convert to Islam cannot claim the status of Backward Class Muslim. He is only a Muslim, and that’s all there is to it,” the High Court had said.
The Supreme Court’s ruling comes months after it upheld an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment holding that a person who converts to Christianity and continues to profess and practise that faith cannot claim Scheduled Caste status.
In its judgment passed on March 24, a Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria held that “no person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be regarded as a member of the Scheduled Caste”.
The apex court had ruled that conversion to a religion not covered by the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, results in the “immediate and complete loss” of Scheduled Caste status.
The Supreme Court had also dismissed a subsequent review petition challenging the March 24 verdict, holding that there was “no error apparent on the record” warranting reconsideration.
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