The Supreme Court on Thursday held that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim reservation under the Muslim backward class (BC) category based on their former caste status.
“Such conversion severs the legal foundation of an entitlement which is specifically conditioned upon membership of that Hindu social order," said the ruling of a two-judge Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar.
The top court held that a person who converts from a Hindu social order to a non-Hindu social order cannot claim affirmative action under Article 16(4) merely on the basis of social backwardness associated with his pre-conversion status.
The apex court passed the ruling after the Tamil Nadu state government moved before it -- by filing an appeal -- against the HC order quashing its decision recognising seven backward class Muslim sects, allowing persons to be treated as backward class Muslims after converting.
The apex court said former caste or community status cannot automatically be transposed into the Muslim backward classes category, and a private religious body cannot conclusively determine statutory entitlement.
The Madras High Court earlier had struck down a Tamil Nadu government order that allowed converts from backward classes, most backward classes, denotified communities and scheduled castes to get certificates as belonging to seven notified backward class Muslim sects.
The Madras HC Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P.B. Balaji had passed the ruling while deciding a writ petition of Sameer Ahmed ('Paramasivam' before conversion) and declared the government order as unconstitutional.
The HC had observed that a person may convert to Islam but cannot claim membership of a particular Muslim community or caste for reservation purposes.
"As a corollary, we (HC) 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 HC had said. This was challenged by the Tamil Nadu government before the top court.
Ahmed was born into a Hindu family in Thoothukudi, converted in 2015, changed his name, married under Islamic rites and sought a certificate as a Muslim Lebbai, one of seven Muslim communities recognised as backward class Muslims in Tamil Nadu.