New Delhi, Oct 15: The Supreme Court, on Thursday, held that social backwardness associated with a person’s original religious and caste identity cannot automatically be carried over to another religious community following conversion.
A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s special leave petition (SLP) challenging a Madras High Court judgment that barred a person converting to Islam from claiming reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category solely on the basis of conversion.
Upholding the High Court’s decision, the apex court found no grounds to interfere with the judgment, which had struck down a Tamil Nadu government order allowing certain converts to be treated as Backward Class Muslims for reservation purposes.
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 later applied for a community certificate recognising him as a Muslim Lebbai, but revenue authorities rejected his application.
The Madras High Court upheld the rejection and declared unconstitutional Government Order No. 31, issued on March 9, 2024.
The order permitted converts from Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities and Scheduled Castes to be treated as Backward Class Muslims for reservation purposes.
The High Court held that the order was arbitrary because it sought to bring people from distinct reservation categories, including Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes, under the same Backward Class Muslim category.
It also ruled that conversion to Islam alone did not establish membership of a notified Backward Class Muslim community.
The Supreme Court’s ruling comes months after it upheld an Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment concerning Scheduled Caste status after conversion to Christianity.
In its March 24 judgment, a Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria held that a person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism could not be regarded as a member of a Scheduled Caste under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950.
The court ruled that conversion to a religion not covered by the order resulted in the “immediate and complete loss” of Scheduled Caste status. It subsequently dismissed a review petition challenging the verdict, finding no error apparent on the record warranting reconsideration.
In the Tamil Nadu case, the Supreme Court had reserved its decision on August 7.
The state government’s appeal argued that the High Court judgment raised substantial questions about the permissible scope of judicial interference in executive policy framed on the recommendation of an expert statutory commission.