The Tamil Nadu government has challenged a Madras High Court ruling that said that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category, Live Law reported on Wednesday.
On June 24, the High Court struck down a 2024 government order that allowed persons from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities or Scheduled Castes who converted to Islam to obtain a Backward Class (Muslim) community certificate. The certificate could be issued only if they belonged to Ansar, Dekkani Muslims, Dubekula, Labbais, Mapilla, Sheik and Syed.
The court had held that a person who has converted to Islam cannot claim the status of a Backward Class Muslim. “He is only a Muslim and that’s all there is to it,” the bench said.
The observations came while ruling on a plea filed by a 33-year-old man who was born as a Hindu in Thoothukudi district.
The man converted to Islam in 2015, changed his name and married as per Islamic traditions. He had subsequently applied for a community certificate that identified him as a Muslim Lebbai, one of the seven sects recognised as Backward Class Muslims in Tamil Nadu under the 2024 government order.
He approached the High Court after the tehsildar had rejected his application for the certificate.
During the proceedings, he had cited the 2024 government order.
The state government also defended its order, contending that it was based on a recommendation made by the state Backward Classes Commission. It said that only the persons who were eligible for reservations before conversion would continue to receive the benefits.
However, the bench rejected the state’s defence. It said that a High Court order from “more than 75 years ago” had established that when a person converts to Islam, he becomes a “just another Mussalman”.
It held that the legal position cannot be undone by a government order.
The High Court further observed that the government order had clubbed converts from the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities and the Scheduled Castes into the Backward Class Muslims category “just for the sake of ensuring” that the persons continue to get reservations.
Edited by Tanya Shrivastava.
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