The Supreme Court declined to disturb a Madras High Court judgment holding that pre-conversion backwardness cannot by itself confer backward-class status in a different religion.

BulletsIn

• The Supreme Court declined to interfere with a Madras High Court judgment dated 25 June 2026.
• The High Court held that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot claim a notified Backward Class Muslim community merely on pre-conversion backwardness.
• The petitioner, born in a Hindu backward community, converted to Islam, married under Islamic rites in 2016 and sought a certificate as Muslim Lebbai; the tehsildar refused.
• The High Court also struck down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that had allowed such claims.
• Backwardness suffered in the earlier social order cannot, by itself, confer backward-class status in the new religion.
• Conversion does not make a person a member of any of the seven notified Backward Class Muslim communities, and a private religious body cannot conclusively certify membership.
• Community certificates are declaratory and cannot create a status, and an executive order cannot enlarge constitutional and statutory conditions for membership.
• Scheduled Caste status ends on conversion to a religion outside paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which covers Hinduism, with Sikhism added in 1956 and Buddhism in 1990.
• Tamil Nadu provides a 3.5% sub-quota for seven notified Backward Class Muslim communities under a 2007 State law.
• On reconversion, entitlement under Article 16(4) needs an independent, fact-specific inquiry into whether the original caste identity has genuinely revived.
• In C. Selvarani (November 2024), the Court called conversion made only to obtain reservation a fraud on the Constitution.
• The Justice Ranganath Misra Commission (2007) recommended delinking Scheduled Caste status from religion, and the Justice K.G. Balakrishnan Commission (2022) is examining the issue.

Tags: BackwardClasses, ReligiousConversion, Reservation