Supreme Court holds that conversion alone cannot confer Backward Class Muslim status
16 October 2026
The Supreme Court dismissed Tamil Nadu's appeal and upheld a Madras High Court ruling striking down a State Government Order on reservation for religious converts.
A bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Shree Chandrashekhar held that a person who converts to a non-Hindu religion cannot claim affirmative action under Article 16(4) on the basis of pre-conversion social backwardness alone.
The Government Order of 9 March 2024 had allowed persons who converted to Islam from backward, most backward, denotified or Scheduled Caste backgrounds to be treated as Backward Class (Muslim) and placed in one of seven notified Muslim communities.
The Court said conversion does not automatically make a person a member of any particular notified backward class community.
It noted that under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order only persons professing Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be Scheduled Castes.
The Court said that where a person reconverts to Hinduism, entitlement must be decided on the facts of each case.
In plain words
Article 16(4) Clause on reservation in public employment — It lets the State reserve posts for backward classes not adequately represented in its services.