Person cannot claim reservation based on caste after conversion to another religion: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court has held that a person cannot carry the caste or community he was born into even after converting to another religion and cannot claim reservation based on his caste after he has converted [U Akbar Ali v The State of Tamil Nadu and another]. .In a judgement passed on December 1, Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court dismissed a plea filed by a man, who after converting from Hinduism to Islam, had sought benefits of reservation on the basis of the community that he was born into.Justice Swaminathan cited a host of Supreme Court judgments that held that once someone born a Hindu converts to another religion which does not recognise the caste system, the person would cease to belong to the caste into which he was born. .The Court also placed reliance on the apex court's judgement in Kailash Sonkar v Maya Devi which said that the caste that a Hindu belongs to is determined by his or her birth. Therefore, if a Hindu converts to Islam or Christianity or any other religion that does not recognise caste, the conversion amounts to "the loss of the said caste" and that the "original caste remains under eclipse, and as soon as the person is reconverted to the original religion, the eclipse disappears and the caste automatically revives."The petitioner had told the High Court that he and his family members were Hindus belonging to the Most Backward Class (MBC). They converted to Islam in May 2008. In 2018, the petitioner sat for the Tamil Nadu (TN) Combined Civil Services Examination. He failed to make it to the merit list and the response to his RTI query revealed that the TN Public Service Commission (TNPSC) had treated him as a general category applicant and not as one belonging to the Backward Class Muslim category. He argued that in converting to Islam, he had exercised his fundamental right to practice a religion of his choice. But before such conversion, he had the status of an MBC and the State of Tamil Nadu recognised some Muslim communities as belonging to the Backward Class. Therefore, the TNPSC should have considered his candidature in the Backward Class community, he argued..The State government opposed the petition, arguing that the TN government did not recognise all Muslims as belonging to the Backward Class category. Justice Swaminathan noted the submissions and cited the 2013 judgement of the Madras High Court in S Ruhaiyah Begum v The state of Tamil Nadu to say that the whole purpose of social justice is defeated if a person even after converting insists on claiming benefits of the community or caste that he previously belonged to. "As observed in S.Yasmine case, a person cannot carry his community of birth even after conversion. Whether such a person should be given the benefit of reservation even after conversion is a question that is pending adjudication before the Hon'ble Supreme Court. When the Hon'ble Supreme Court is seized of the matter, it is not for this Court to uphold the claim of the petitioner. It is for this reason, I am not persuaded by the precedents cited by the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner. The stand taken by the second respondent Commission is correct. It does not warrant any interference," the High Court said. Senior Counsel M Ajmalkhan and advocate C Venkatesh Kumar appeared for the petitioner. Special Government Pleader AK Manikkam and advocate V Panneer Selvam appeared for the Tamil Nadu government. .[Read Judgment]