Backward class Hindus who convert can’t claim backward status under new faith, says SC

SC bench affirms a Madras High Court judgment that struck down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order, while hearing the petition of a man who converted to Islam.

Supreme Court file photo | Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday held that a person who converts from the Hindu social order to a non-Hindu social order is not entitled to backward class reservation based on their pre-conversion status.

In doing so, a bench of justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar affirmed a Madras High Court judgment that struck down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order allowing a person who converted to Islam from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities, or Scheduled Castes to be treated as BC (Muslim). To allow such a person to avail of reservation upon conversion, the government order also permitted them to be issued with a community certificate declaring them a member of one of the seven sects notified as backward class Muslims. 

“A person who converts to Islam by that act alone doesn’t become a member of one of the seven notified backward class social communities in the state. His former caste status can’t be transposed to the Muslim backward class category, nor can his private religious body conclusively determine such status entitlement,” the SC bench said.

A converted person under this category cannot claim affirmative action under Article 16(4)of the Constitution—which empowers the state to make provisions for the reservation of appointments or posts in public employment in favour of any backward class of citizens—merely on the basis of social backwardness associated with their pre-conversion status.

The pre-conversion backward status cannot be carried forward post conversion so as to entitle the person to claim reservation benefits, the court said.

It added that by virtue of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, a person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. Since a convert to any other religion ceases to possess the Scheduled Caste status, they cannot claim reservation under Article 16(4), which is dependent on membership of a Scheduled Caste, the court clarified.

“No statutory benefit, protection, reservation or other entitlement under Article 16(4), the enjoyment of which is dependent on a particular social order, can be claimed merely on the basis of antecedent membership after a person has converted to Islam, Christianity or any other non-Hindu social order. Such conversion severs the legal foundation of an entitlement conditioned upon membership of the Hindu social order,” the court said.

The case in which the judgment came

Pre-conversion caste or community status cannot, merely by reason of conversion, be transposed into a notified backward class community in the post-conversion social order because conversion does not confer automatic membership of any particular backward caste community in a non-Hindu social order, explained the court.

“The social backwardness that forms the basis of a person’s pre-conversion status cannot, by itself, constitute the legal foundation for conferring membership of a different notified backward class community after conversion,” held the judgment.

Reconversion to the Hindu social order would also not entitle them to reservation benefits meant for the Scheduled Caste until an independent determination is made on whether the original caste or social identity of the person has genuinely revived upon reconversion and the person has satisfied the applicable constitutional and legal requirements.

A Madras High Court bench of Justice G.R. Swaminathan and Justice P.B. Balaji had held that the Tamil Nadu government’s order was against its and the SC’s earlier pronouncements, holding that a person converting to Islam could only be treated as a Muslim and not belonging to a notified backward class of the community.

The seven sects of Muslims notified as backward class Muslims as per the Tamil Nadu Backwards Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993, are: Ansar, Dekkani Muslims, Dubekula, Labbais including Rowthar and Marakayar, Mapilla, Sheik, and Syed.

The high court was hearing a plea by Sameer Ahamed, who had converted from the Hindu religion to Islam in 2015. A gazette notification was issued for the same in 2016. Sameer also married his wife as per Islamic rites and customs and had two children from the marriage.

Sameer had also applied for a community certificate certifying him as belonging to the ‘Muslim Lebbai’ community. The application was rejected by the tahsildar against whom the plea was filed before the high court. Sameer claimed that, as per the government issued by the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare on 9 March 2024, he could be issued the certificate.

Edited by Sunanda Ranjan