Supreme Court: Converts to Islam Cannot Carry Their Earlier Backward Class Status for Reservation
On 15 October 2026, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar held that a Hindu from a backward class cannot claim reservation for that class after converting to Islam. The court said backwardness suffered in the earlier (pre-conversion) social order cannot be carried into the new religion.
The court dismissed the Tamil Nadu government's appeal against a Madras High Court judgment of 25 June 2026. The High Court had struck down a Tamil Nadu Government Order of 9 March 2024, which allowed such converts to get Backward Class (Muslim) certificates.
The case began with a man who converted from Hinduism to Islam in 2015 (notified in the Gazette in 2016) and asked for a certificate as a "Muslim Lebbai", one of the notified backward Muslim communities in Tamil Nadu.
The court said conversion does not automatically make a person a member of any of the seven notified Backward Class Muslim communities in Tamil Nadu, and a private religious body cannot decide a person's legal right to reservation.
It repeated that a person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot be a Scheduled Caste member.
If a convert later returns to Hinduism, the competent authority must decide his status through a fact-based inquiry, not just by looking at his old status.
Articles 15(4) and 16(4): Reservation for Backward Classes
Article 15 and Article 16 are part of the Right to Equality (Part III, Fundamental Rights). Article 15(4) lets the State make special provisions for "socially and educationally backward classes" and for SCs and STs, for example reserved seats in colleges. Article 16(4) lets the State reserve government jobs for any backward class of citizens that, in the State's opinion, is not adequately represented in its services. These clauses are the legal base of OBC reservation.
Tamil Nadu argued its order only protected reservation rights of converts. The court held that Article 16(4) protects backward groups as they actually exist, and a convert's past backwardness inside the Hindu caste order does not automatically become backwardness inside the Muslim community.
Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 is the official list, issued by the President under Article 341, that decides which castes count as Scheduled Castes (SCs) in each state. Only castes named in it get SC benefits. Its paragraph 3 adds a religion condition: a person who professes a religion other than the ones it names cannot be treated as an SC member.
The court restated that conversion to Islam ends SC status under paragraph 3. It then applied a similar logic to backward class status, which is the new point in this judgment.
Religious Conversion and Reservation: SC, ST and OBC Status
In India, some groups get reservation (reserved seats in jobs, colleges and legislatures) because they faced deep social disadvantage. The three main groups are Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs). When a person changes religion, a key question arises: does the person keep the reservation status of the group he was born into? The answer is different for each group, and this difference is a favourite UPSC topic.
The October 2026 ruling extends the logic of the SC rule to OBC status: a convert cannot carry backwardness from the old religion into the new one. The ruling leaves the ST rule untouched and keeps the door open for genuine reconversion cases, which must be checked through a fact-based inquiry.
- Judgment date: 15 October 2026; bench: Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar
- Tamil Nadu G.O. allowing converts BC (Muslim) certificates: 9 March 2024
- Madras High Court struck down the G.O.: 25 June 2026
- Supreme Court reserved its verdict: August 2026
- Tamil Nadu notified Backward Class Muslim communities: 7
- Article 16(4): reservation in public jobs for backward classes not adequately represented
- SC status: only Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists (para 3, SC Order 1950)