Converting to Islam Doesn’t Automatically Bring BC Quota: Supreme Court

Tamil Nadu’s 2024 order on converts and Muslim backward class certificates has been struck down for good. Here’s the full timeline

PGurus Newsdesk

October 15, 2026

Seven notified communities, one key question: the Supreme Court’s verdict on conversion and reservation, explained

Caste Status Can’t Be Transposed After Conversion, Says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has ruled that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim a backward class reservation simply on the basis of their social status before conversion. The court upheld a Madras High Court judgment that struck down a Tamil Nadu government order on the issue.

The verdict

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar delivered the ruling on Thursday, dismissing the Tamil Nadu government’s appeal. The court said that moving from a Hindu social order to a non-Hindu one does not, by itself, make a person a member of any particular backward caste community. The earlier caste identity, it held, cannot be transferred to the Muslim backward class category, and a private religious body cannot conclusively decide such entitlement.

The bench explained that benefits under Article 16(4) of the Constitution depend on the specific social order and the community classifications tied to it. Creating such a route, it said, would produce an “artificial group” that bypasses the statutory framework governing affirmative action. Reports also say the court observed that a Dalit who converts to Islam loses Scheduled Caste status and the benefits attached to it.

The order at the centre of the case

The dispute arose from a Tamil Nadu government order of March 9, 2024. It allowed people who converted to Islam from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities or Scheduled Castes to be treated as Backward Class Muslims. They could obtain community certificates showing them as members of one of seven notified Muslim communities: Ansar, Dekkani Muslims, Dubekula, Labbais (including Rowthar and Marakayar), Mapilla, Sheik and Syed.

What the High Court held

In June 2026, a Madras High Court bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji struck down the order. It held that the order conflicted with earlier rulings of the High Court and the Supreme Court, and that a person who converts to Islam can only be treated as a Muslim. The state challenged that decision, and the Supreme Court reserved its verdict in August after hearing the parties.

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