The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled that a person who converts to Islam becomes only a Muslim and cannot claim any sub-category such as “Backward Class (BC) Muslim” for reservation benefits. The court also held that a Tamil Nadu government order issued to grant BC Muslim community certificates to certain converts was illegal.
The case was filed by a man from Thoothukudi district who said he was born to a Hindu couple as “Paramasivam” and later embraced Islam, changed his name to “Sameer Ahmed”, and obtained a certificate from a local Sunnath Jamaath in 2015. He sought a community certificate under the “Muslim Labbai” section, but his application was rejected by the Kayathar Tahsildar, prompting him to approach the court.
A Division Bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and B.P. Balaji noted that changing one’s religious identity is an exercise of a fundamental right. However, the judges said that continuing to seek reservation benefits after conversion raises separate questions of legality and justification, and relied on earlier rulings which held that a person’s pre-conversion caste cannot be used to determine status within the Islamic community.
The judgment examined a recommendation made by the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission on February 6, 2024, and the subsequent government order dated March 9, 2024, which sought to regularise issuance of “BC Muslim” certificates to converts from BC/MBC/DNC/SC backgrounds who joined any of seven identified Muslim sections. The court concluded that such a framework could not be sustained in law and set aside the government order.
