The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Hindus belonging to Backward Classes cannot automatically claim reservation benefits after embracing Islam. The bench said, "A backwardness suffered in the antecedent social order cannot by itself be carried forward." This decision upheld a Madras High Court ruling regarding specific community status claims.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that Hindus belonging to Backward Classes cannot automatically claim reservation benefits based on their pre-conversion caste status after embracing Islam.
It held that conversion alone does not confer membership of a notified Backward-Class Muslim community.
Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Shree Chandrashekhar dismissed the Tamil Nadu government's appeal against a Madras High Court ruling that struck down a March 9, 2024, Government Order allowing converts from Backward Classes and other specified communities to claim reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category.
"A backwardness suffered in the antecedent social order cannot by itself be carried forward so as to confer upon him the status of a Backward Class in the region to which he has converted," the court said.
The bench held that pre-conversion caste status could not automatically establish membership of a notified backward class after conversion.
"A person's pre-conversion caste or community status cannot, merely by reason of conversion, be transposed into membership of a distinct notified Backward Class community in the post-conversion social order," it said.
The court also reiterated that under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, a person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot claim Scheduled Caste status.
It clarified that even reconversion to Hinduism would not automatically restore reservation eligibility.
The competent authority would have to independently determine whether the person's original caste identity had genuinely revived and whether legal requirements were satisfied.
The case arose from a petition by Sameer Ahamed, who converted to Islam in 2015 and subsequently sought a community certificate identifying him as belonging to the Muslim Lebbai community.
The Madras High Court had ruled on June 25 that conversion alone did not entitle a person to reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category.
Tamil Nadu challenged the ruling, arguing that its order sought to protect socially and educationally backward people from losing reservation benefits solely because they converted to Islam.
Upholding the High Court's conclusion, the Supreme Court said a convert did not automatically become a member of any of the seven notified backward-class Muslim communities.
The BJP welcomed the judgment as "historic", calling it a "massive blow to the appeasement politics" of the Congress and other Opposition parties.