Supreme Court: Converts to Islam Cannot Carry Backward Class Status Through Conversion
The Supreme Court dismissed the Tamil Nadu government's appeal and upheld a Madras High Court judgment on backward class status for people who convert to Islam.
The case was about G.O. (Ms) No. 31 of 9 March 2024, a Tamil Nadu government order. It allowed converts to Islam from Backward Class, Most Backward Class, Denotified and Scheduled Caste communities to be treated as Backward Class Muslims and get the 3.5% quota meant for them.
A Division Bench of the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) had struck down this order in June 2026. The petitioner was a man who converted to Islam in 2015 and was refused a community certificate as a member of a notified Muslim backward community (Labbai).
The Supreme Court held that conversion alone does not give backward class status. A person's backwardness in the earlier social order cannot simply be carried forward into a backward class of the new religion.
The ruling does not change the separate rule for Scheduled Castes: under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists can be members of a Scheduled Caste.
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). Each follows a different rule when a person changes religion. Knowing these three rules side by side is the key to every question on conversion and reservation.
This ruling applies the third rule. The notified Muslim backward communities in Tamil Nadu are birth-based social groups. A person who converts joins the religion, but does not automatically become a member of one of those groups, so the Court held that the earlier backwardness cannot be carried across.
Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950
The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 is the official list that decides which castes count as Scheduled Castes in each state. It is issued by the President under Article 341 of the Constitution. Its paragraph 3 adds a religion condition: a person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism cannot be a member of a Scheduled Caste.
The news ruling was about backward class status, not SC status. But the order Tamil Nadu tried to issue also covered SC converts to Islam, who already lose SC status under paragraph 3. The Court's view means such converts also cannot claim a backward Muslim community's status just by converting.
Articles 15(4) and 16(4): Reservation for Backward Classes
Article 15 and Article 16 are part of the Right to Equality in Part III of the Constitution (the Fundamental Rights). Article 15(4) lets the State make special provisions for socially and educationally backward classes, SCs and STs, for example in education. Article 16(4) lets the State reserve government jobs for any backward class of citizens that is not adequately represented in its services.
Reservation under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) goes to a class that has been identified as backward. The Supreme Court's ruling means that membership of such a class depends on actually belonging to the notified community, not on the act of conversion.
- Tamil Nadu order struck down: G.O. (Ms) No. 31, dated 9 March 2024
- Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) judgment: June 2026; Supreme Court upheld it in October 2026
- Tamil Nadu quota: 3.5% for Backward Class Muslims, inside the 30% Backward Classes share (total reservation in Tamil Nadu: 69%)
- SC status: only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists (Sikhs added 1956, Buddhists 1990), under paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, issued under Article 341
- STs: Article 342, no religion condition
- C. Selvarani (2024): conversion only for reservation is a "fraud on the Constitution"
- Article 15(4): added by the 1st Amendment, 1951; Article 16(4): original Constitution
- Indra Sawhney (1992): 50% ceiling, creamy layer