Stories
Supreme Court Bars Converted Muslims From Claiming BC(M) Quota in Tamil Nadu
- •The Supreme Court ruled that individuals converting from Hinduism to another religion cannot claim reservations solely based on pre-conversion social backwardness.
- •A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar held that religious conversion does not automatically grant membership in a notified Backward Class community.
- •The ruling sets aside the Tamil Nadu government's March 2024 order allowing converts to Islam from various categories to be treated as Backward Class Muslims for quota benefits.
- •Tamil Nadu currently provides a separate 3.5 percent reservation for Backward Class Muslims within its state reservation framework, which was previously struck down as unconstitutional by the Madras High Court.
Key Questions Answered
The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to another religion cannot claim reservation under Article 16(4) solely based on pre-conversion social backwardness. The bench held that religious conversion does not automatically confer membership in a notified Backward Class community.
The ruling concerns Tamil Nadu's March 2024 order that allowed individuals converting to Islam from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities, and Scheduled Castes to be treated as Backward Class Muslims for reservations. The Madras High Court struck down this order as unconstitutional, leading the state government to approach the Supreme Court.
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 specifies that a person professing any religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism cannot be deemed a member of a Scheduled Caste.
