Caste after conversion

Transcript:

Last week, the Supreme Court held that a person who converts to Islam cannot, by that act alone, avail reservation as a member of the Backward Class. The petitioner was originally a Hindu who had converted to Islam. As someone who followed the faith and practices of Labbai Muslims, he sought recognition as a member of one of the seven notified Backward Class Muslim Communities in Tamil Nadu. 

A few months ago, in March, the Supreme Court held that religious conversion results in “immediate and complete loss” of Scheduled Caste status regardless of birth. The petitioner was originally born into the Madiga caste in Andhra Pradesh and had converted to Christianity. He alleged assault, abuse and threats to life by the dominant caste community and sought registration of an FIR under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989. 

In November 2024, the Court noted that claiming SC status after conversion amounts to a “fraud on the Constitution.” The petitioner was the daughter of an inter-faith couple: her mother was a Christian who had converted to Hinduism after marriage and her father belonged to the Valluvan caste in Pondicherry. Finding her to be Christian by religion, the Court denied her recognition of SC status.

All the while, the underlying question across all of these cases has been pending at the top court for more than 20 years!

In the year 2000, a man named Ghazi Saaduddin was elected in Aurangabad, Maharashtra from a ward reserved for SC candidates as he belonged to the Madari caste which is listed under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. He was later disqualified on the basis of an amended Clause 3 of the same Order:

Saaduddin has challenged Clause 3 in the Supreme Court and so have multiple other petitioners. They contend that excluding members of other religions from the definition of SC violates Articles 14, 15, 16 and 25 of the Constitution.

In 2007, the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former CJI, Ranganathan Mishra recommended extending the benefit of SC reservations to Dalits who have converted to Christianity and Islam. 

However, the Central Government discarded their report as “flawed” and in 2022, it constituted another committee, to be led by former CJI, K. G. Balakrishnan. 

After four years and multiple deadline extensions, the Balakrishnan committee submitted its report a few months ago in June.

As our contributing editor V. Venkatesan wrote regarding Chinthada Anand’s case, “The law recognises his right to profess Christianity. It does not recognise the possibility that those who assaulted him might have treated him, regardless of his faith, as a Madiga. Other Dalits and Scheduled Caste members, who have converted to Christianity or Islam find themselves in a similar position: their faith makes them ineligible for the protections that attach to caste, while the religious conversion fails to make the difference the law assumes it did.”

The Ghazi Saaduddin matter was last heard on 17 August and has been listed nearly every month since January 2026 before a 3-judge Bench led by CJI Surya Kant. Follow our case page and stay tuned to SC Observer for the latest updates!