The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Madras High Court ruling that said that a person from the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities and Scheduled Castes who converts to Islam cannot claim reservations under the Backward Class (Muslim) category, Bar and Bench reported.
On June 24, the High Court struck down a Tamil Nadu government order, after which the state challenged it in July.
On Thursday, the bench said that a person who converts to Islam does not automatically become a member of one of the seven notified backward class social communities in the state, Live Law reported.
“His former caste status cannot be transposed to the Muslim backward class category, nor can his private religious body conclusively determine such status entitlement,” it said.
On March 24, the Supreme Court said that only persons belonging to the Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths can claim the Scheduled Caste status. A Dalit person converting to any religion other than the three loses his or her Scheduled Caste status, regardless of the status at birth, the court had ruled at the time, citing Clause 3 of the 1950 Constitution Scheduled Caste Order.
Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
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Source: Scroll.in
