After converting, a person cannot claim reservation on the basis of his caste he was born into

Case: U Akbar Ali v The State of Tamil Nadu and another

Madras High Court has ruled that after converting to another religion, a person cannot maintain the caste or community he was born into, nor can he claim reservation on the basis of his caste.

Madras High Court, Justice GR Swaminathan dismissed a plea filed by a Hindu convert to Islam seeking reservation based on his community of birth.

As Justice Swaminathan pointed out, the Supreme Court has held in a number of cases that when a Hindu converts to another religion that doesn't recognize caste, the Hindu ceases to be a part of the caste to which he or she belongs.

In addition, the Court cited the Supreme Court's judgment in Kailash Sonkar v Maya Devi that based on a Hindu's birth, caste is determined. The conversion of a Hindu to Islam, Christianity, or any other religion that does not recognize caste equates to "the loss of the caste" and that the "original caste remains under eclipse, but as soon as the person is reconverted to the original religion, the eclipse disappears, and the caste automatically revives."

According to the petitioner, he and his family members are Hindus from the MBC (Most Backward Class). They converted to Islam in May 2008. In 2018, the petitioner took the Civil Services Exam conducted by Tamil Nadu (TN).

According to his RTI query, the TN Public Service Commission (TNPSC) treated him as a general-category applicant instead of one belonging to the Backward Class Muslim category.

According to him, he was an MBC before his conversion, and Tamil Nadu recognized some Muslim communities as belonging to the Backward Class.

Therefore, he should be considered from the Backward Class community, he argued.

In opposition to the petition, the State government argued that all Muslims were not considered backward.

According to Justice Swaminathan, the purpose of social justice is defeated if a person insists on claiming benefits from his former community or caste even after converting. He cited the 2013 Madras High Court decision in S Ruhaiyah Begum v The state of Tamil Nadu.