The Madras High Court on Thursday struck down a Tamil Nadu government order that allowed persons from the Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities and Scheduled Castes to be treated as Backward Class Muslims after they had converted to Islam.

A bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji ruled that the March 2024 order was unconstitutional.

The court 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 tahsildar 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.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sara Varghese.