The Supreme Court on Thursday held that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim backward class reservation solely on the basis of their caste or community status before conversion.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar ruled that a person's social backwardness under the Hindu social order does not automatically carry over to a non-Hindu social order after religious conversion.

The Court dismissed the Tamil Nadu government's plea challenging a Madras High Court judgment that barred a person who converts to Islam from claiming reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category solely on the basis of conversion.

“Conversion to a non-Hindu social order does not, by itself, confer membership of any particular backward caste community. A person's pre-conversion caste or community status cannot, merely by reason of conversion, be transposed into a notified backward class community in the post-conversion social order,” the Court observed.

The Supreme Court upheld the High Court's decision to quash a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that allowed persons converting to Islam from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities or Scheduled Castes to obtain community certificates under the Backward Class (Muslim) category. The order permitted eligible converts to claim membership in one of seven notified Muslim sects for reservation benefits.

The Tamil Nadu government challenged the High Court's ruling before the Supreme Court, arguing that socially and educationally backward persons should not lose reservation benefits merely because they change their religion.

Rejecting the plea, the Supreme Court observed that reservation and other statutory benefits linked to membership of a particular social order cannot be claimed solely on the basis of a person's status before conversion.

“No statutory benefit, protection, reservation or other entitlement under Article 16(4), the enjoyment of which is dependent on a particular social order, can be claimed merely on the basis of antecedent membership after a person has converted to Islam, Christianity or any other non-Hindu social order. Such conversion severs the legal foundation of an entitlement conditioned upon membership of the Hindu social order,” the Court held.

The bench also clarified that a person who converts from the Hindu social order to another religion and later reconverts to Hinduism cannot automatically reclaim their previous reservation status.

The Court said authorities must independently examine the facts to determine whether the person's original caste or social identity has genuinely revived after reconversion and whether they meet the applicable constitutional and legal requirements.