NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Thursday ruled a Scheduled Castes/OBC person who converts from a Hindu social order to a non-Hindu social order will not be entitled to the benefits of reservation. The court held that reservation is attached to a constitutionally identified class and not to an individual as a personal entitlement, which can be transferred if a person converts.SC said backwardness suffered by the person in Hindu religion cannot be carried forward to the new religion embraced by him or her.The order came on a petition filed by then DMK-led Tamil Nadu govt challenging a Madras HC order quashing state govt’s order to allow reservations for Dalit and OBC converts to Islam.As reservation is provided to some communities of other religions, which are recognised as backward classes in different states, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar held that conversion of OBCs/Dalits to a non-Hindu social order does not, by itself, confer membership of any particular notified backward class community of the adopted religion.
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The apex court’s verdict comes against the backdrop of growing demand for extending reservation to those OBCs/Dalits who converted to other religions.“A person who converts from a Hindu social order to a non-Hindu social order cannot claim affirmative action under Article 16(4) of Constitution merely on the basis of the social backwardness associated with his pre-conversion status; the backwardness suffered in the antecedent social order cannot, by itself, be carried forward so as to confer upon him the status of a backward class in the religion to which he has converted,” Supreme Courtsaid while quashing the Tamil Nadu order.