By Admin 
The Vijay government of Tamil Nadu has moved the Supreme Court against the Madras High Court’s decision, which has said that a person converting to Islam is not entitled to claim reservation under the ‘Backward Class (Muslim)’ category merely on the basis of conversion. The Secretary of the State Government has filed a petition against the decision of the High Court, under which the Government Order (GO) issued on March 9, 2024 was declared unconstitutional.
The then government order allowed those people belonging to Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities (DNC) and Scheduled Castes (SC) who later converted to Islam, to be considered as backward classes (Muslims). In GO, such people were also allowed to obtain community certificate under any one of the seven notified Muslim communities to avail the benefits of reservation.
What did the Madras High Court say?
The bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice PB Balaji had quashed that government order, saying that it was against the binding judicial decisions of both the Supreme Court and the Madras High Court. The High Court had said that only a person who embraces Islam can be considered a Muslim. The court had said that such a person cannot be considered a member of a particular notified ‘backward class (Muslim)’ community for the purpose of reservation merely on the basis of conversion.
This decision was given on the petition of Sameer Ahmed, who had left Hinduism and converted to Islam in 2015 and this change was informed through a gazette notification in 2016. Sameer got married according to Islamic rituals and applied for a certificate of being a member of the ‘Muslim Lebbai’ community to avail the benefits of reservation. However, the Tehsildar rejected Sameer’s application, after which he approached the High Court.