SC: Hindu convert can't claim Backward Class Muslim status

The Supreme Court has upheld the Madras High Court’s decision to quash a Tamil Nadu government order (GO) allowing individuals from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities, and Scheduled Castes who convert from Hinduism to Islam to be treated as Backward Class Muslims (BCM). In a judgment authored by Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar, the Bench ruled that conversion from Hinduism to Islam does not automatically entitle a person to religion-specific reservation benefits.

The classification for reservation purposes must be grounded in social and educational backwardness, not religious identity post-conversion.

The Court emphasized that reservation under Articles 15 and 16 is based on objective criteria of backwardness and must not be manipulated through statutory notifications that conflate caste with religious conversion. The TN GO was found to violate constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination.

This ruling clarifies the limits of executive power in extending reservation benefits based on religion and sets an important precedent for similar claims in other states. Practitioners must now counsel clients that conversion alone does not create an automatic entitlement to religion-based reservations.