The Tamil Nadu government has escalated its legal battle to the Supreme Court, challenging a Madras high Court decision that restricts reservation benefits for individuals converting to Islam based solely on their conversion.
Key Points
- Tamil Nadu government challenges Madras High Court ruling on reservation for converts to Islam.
- Madras High Court declared a GO unconstitutional, stating conversion alone does not grant BC (Muslim) reservation.
- The GO allowed converts from BC, MBC, DNC, or SC to be treated as BC (Muslim) for reservation benefits.
- High Court cited binding judicial precedents from both Supreme Court and Madras High Court.
- The case originated from Sameer Ahamed's petition after his application for a 'Muslim Lebbai' community certificate was rejected.
The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court, challenging a Madras high court judgment that held a person converting to Islam is not entitled to claim reservation under the Backward Class (Muslim) category solely on the basis of conversion.
The appeal has been filed by the secretary to the state government against the high court's decision, which declared unconstitutional a Government Order (GO) issued on March 9, 2024.
The impugned GO had permitted persons belonging to Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities (DNC), or Scheduled Castes (SC) who subsequently converted to Islam to be treated as BC (Muslim) and obtain community certificates under one of the seven notified Muslim communities for the purpose of availing reservation benefits.
Madras High Court's Ruling On Reservation
A division bench of Justices G R Swaminathan and P B Balaji struck down the GO and held that it was contrary to binding judicial precedents of both the Supreme Court and the Madras high court.
The high court had observed that a person converting to Islam could only be treated as a Muslim and could not, by virtue of conversion alone, be classified as belonging to any specific notified Backward Class Muslim community for reservation purposes.
The judgment arose from a petition filed by Sameer Ahamed, who converted from Hinduism to Islam in 2015, with the conversion being notified through a Gazette notification in 2016.
He subsequently married according to Islamic rites and sought a certificate identifying him as belonging to the 'Muslim Lebbai' community to avail reservation benefits. His application was rejected by the tahsildar, prompting him to move the high court.
