The Tamil Nadu government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court’s ruling that quashed a government order allowing people from Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Scheduled Communities (DNC) and Scheduled Castes (SC), who have converted to Islam, to continue to avail reservation benefits by being treated as Backward Caste Muslims (BCM).
The special leave petition, filed through advocate P Karunakaran, is currently undergoing examination of defects on the Supreme Court’s registry and is expected to be listed before the court after redress of the defects or specific direction on listing before appropriate court is secured by the State.
The Supreme Court, in its June 25 ruling, declared the then DMK government’s March 9, 2024 state order “unconstitutional”, holding that the state cannot, through an executive order, override binding case law which has consistently held that a person who converts to Islam becomes a “mere Muslim” and cannot claim membership in one of the seven backward Muslim communities in the state.
A division bench of Justices JR Swaminathan and BB Balaji held as follows: “We are of the view that a convert to Islam cannot claim the status of a backward class Muslim. He is just a Muslim and that is all there is to it.”
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The seven communities recognized as backward class Muslims in Tamil Nadu are Ansar, Deccani Muslims, Dubekula, Lapis (including Rother and Marakayar), Mappila, Sheikh and Syed Muslims. These communities were grouped under a separate Muslim category of backward class through a government order issued in July 2008, and this is reflected in the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act.
The Government Order 2024 had directed that people belonging to Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Unscheduled Communities and Scheduled Castes, who have converted to Islam, will continue to get the benefits of reservation by being treated as backward class Muslims. It also allowed the issuance of community certificates identifying such converts as belonging to any of the seven notified BCM communities in the state, making them eligible for reservation under the BCM category.
However, the Supreme Court held that the state’s assumption that a convert could issue a certificate showing membership of one of those communities to an Islamic convert was “legally and conceptually unsustainable”.
The bench relied on a 1951 Madras High Court judgment, which held that when a Hindu converts to Islam, the person only becomes a Muslim and not a member of any particular Muslim community like Labai, Rother, Marakayar or Syed. The court noted that such societies depend on birth and cannot be acquired by mere conversion.
“As the Madras High Court bench held more than 75 years ago, upon conversion to Islam, one becomes a Muslim. The Supreme Court bench used the expression ‘mere Muslim’. He cannot be classified into any particular caste or community and that can only be done by virtue of his being born into it,” the Supreme Court said.
The ruling was based on a petition filed by Sameer Ahmed, who was born into a Hindu family, converted to Islam in 2015 and subsequently sought a community certificate identifying him as a Labai Muslim.
His application was rejected by the local Tahsildar in 2022 on the grounds that he was a convert to a religion and not to a caste or community. While his petition challenging the denial was pending before the Supreme Court, the state issued the 2024 Government Order.
The apex court observed that Ahmed’s claim had no legal basis when the petition was filed and gained significance only after the government’s order. But instead of granting him relief, the court considered the validity of the government’s order and invalidated it.
Holding that the executive cannot overturn or circumvent binding judicial precedents through an executive order, the bench observed that although Islam seeks to establish an egalitarian society, many Muslim communities in Tamil Nadu have historically been dependent on birth.
“Just as caste is determined by birth, one is a Rother, Marakayar or Deccani Muslim by birth alone. It is ridiculous to suggest that someone can be converted into a Rother Muslim.”
The Supreme Court, which declared the government order unconstitutional, rejected Ahmed’s petition.
