The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim reservation benefits based on their previous caste status. The court refused to interfere with a June 25 judgment of the Madras High Court, which held that a person converting to Islam cannot claim membership in the Backwards Class category of Muslims solely based on their earlier social status.

“Backwardness suffered in the antecedent social order cannot by itself be carried forward to confer upon him the status of a backward class in the religion to which he has converted,” the bench of Justices PK Mishra and Shree Chandrasekhar said.

The bench referred to paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, which excludes people professing religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism or Sikhism from Scheduled Caste status.

“Consequently, upon conversion to a religion not specified therein, such person ceases to possess the scheduled caste status attached to his antecedent caste and cannot claim any affirmative action benefit of the backward class under Article 16(4) of the Constitution which is predicated upon membership of the Scheduled Caste,” the bench said.

“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. Social backwardness which forms the basis of the person’s pre-conversion status cannot by itself furnish the legal foundation for conferring upon membership of a different notified backward class community after conversion,” it added.

The petitioner was previously Hindu and later converted to Islam. He married a woman under Islamic rites and customs in 2016, and the couple has two children. He applied for a community certificate identifying him as “Muslim Lebbai”. The tehsildar rejected his application, prompting him to approach the Madras High Court.

The High Court upheld the rejection and declared a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order granting reservation in such cases unconstitutional. The Supreme Court upheld this decision, stating that the government order “cannot be sustained and has been rightly quashed by the High Court”.

The bench said the order created an artificial route for people to enter a notified Muslim Backward Class without establishing the required social and legal link. It held that the High Court's decision required no interference.

The Madras High Court had observed that converting to Islam was “an exercise of one’s fundamental right under Article 25 of the Constitution of India”. However, it raised concerns over reservation claims after conversion, stating, “But when, after such metamorphosis, the convertee continues to claim the benefit of reservation, it triggers yet another conversation, nay debate, on the legitimacy and legality of such demand.”