Judiciary Asserts Again: No Reservation After Conversion

A series of judicial decisions have unequivocally asserted that extending Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) reservation and related statutory protection to those, who have converted to Christianity or Islam is unconstitutional. A recent judgement by Madras High Court has highlighted this point again. Madras High Court ruled the Tamil Nadu government decision to grant reservation to converted Muslims as unconstitutional. 

The Court observed that the executive could not override binding judicial precedents through a government order. Such an exercise would undermine the rule of law, it stressed. It found the Government Order to be arbitrary, as it indiscriminately classified converts from different reserved communities under the single category of Backward Class Muslims. This has once again made it clear that conversion results in the end of reservation. This Info-Pack explores the layers of the debate involved and how there has been consistency in judicial stand over the matter.