Conversion does not grant quota benefits, says SC - New Delhi - Supreme Court on Thursday said a Hindu belonging to Backward order cannot claim same quota benefits as Muslim Backward Class member merely by conversion to Islam or other religions. Bench refused to interfere with June 25 judgment of Madras High Court which held that a person converting to Islam cannot claim status of Backward Class category Muslim.
Petitioner, earlier Hindu, later converted to Islam. He married a woman as per Islamic rites and customs in 2016, and had two children. He applied for community certificate showing him as Muslim Lebbai. Tehsildar rejected application, prompting petitioner to approach Madras HC. Upholding tehsildar's order, HC declared 2024 Tamil Nadu government order granting reservation in such cases as unconstitutional.
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Supreme Court upheld HC and said government order cannot be sustained and has been rightly quashed by High Court. It creates artificial route by which person moves from pre-conversion social or backward social order into a notified Muslim backward class without establishing necessary social and legal link. Therefore, declaration made by HC that impugned GO is unsustainable in law calls for no interference, court ruled.
HC had said that Hindu man converting to Islam would pass off as exercise of one's fundamental right under Article 25 of Constitution. But when, after such metamorphosis, convertee continues to claim benefit of reservation, it triggers yet another conversation, nay debate, on legitimacy and legality of such demand.
Judgment also addressed questions of backward class when convert reconverts to original religion. It said where a person after having converted from Hindu social order to a non-Hindu social order and subsequently reconverts to Hindu social order, question of his entitlement to affirmative action under Article 16(4) cannot be determined merely by reference to his antecedent status. Such entitlement would require independent, fact-specific determination by competent authority as to whether original caste or social identity has genuinely revived upon reconversion and whether person satisfies applicable constitutional and statutory conditions governing membership of class or entitlement thereto.
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Bench said no statutory or other entitlement can be claimed or extended merely on basis of such antecedent membership after person has converted to Islam, Christianity or any other non-Hindu social order.
The judgement said that a community certificate is declaratory of, and does not create or confer, status which it purports to recognise. Neither issuance of community certificate nor executive instruction can enlarge, modify or dispense with substantive constitutional and statutory conditions governing membership of class.
Analytically, judgment settles long debate on whether reservation travels with religion. Backwardness suffered in antecedent social order cannot by itself be carried forward to confer status of backward class in religion to which he has converted - Justices P K Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar observed. It prevents misuse - upper caste converting to avail Muslim OBC quota.
For Tamil Nadu, which has separate Muslim Backward Class quota, order protects quota integrity.
Tags: #SupremeCourt #Reservation #Conversion #MadrasHC #BackwardClass #Article25 #MuslimLebai #Quota #Constitution