Religious Conversion Only For Reservation Fraud On Constitution: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court said that the religious conversion undertaken solely to access reservation benefits, without genuine belief in the adopted religion, undermines the fundamental social objectives of the reservation policy.
The Supreme Court in a recent order denied a Scheduled Caste (SC) certificate to a woman who was born as a Christian but claimed to be Hindu in her application for a government job in Puducherry. The top court while upholding the Madras High Court order that had denied the SC certificate tot the woman, observed that religious conversion just to avail benefits of reservation is seen as a fraud on the Constitution and contrary to the ethos of reservation policies.
A bench of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice R. Mahadevan said that the religious conversion undertaken solely to access reservation benefits, without genuine belief in the adopted religion, undermines the fundamental social objectives of the reservation policy.
"Despite the same, she claims to be a Hindu and seeks for Scheduled Caste community certificate for the purpose of employment. Such a dual claim made by her is untenable and she cannot continue to identify herself as a Hindu after baptism. Therefore, the conferment of Scheduled caste communal status to the appellant, who is a Christian by religion, but claims to be still embracing Hinduism only for the purpose of availing reservation in employment, would go against the very object of reservation and would amount to fraud on the Constitution,” the court said.
The woman told the court that she was born to a Hindu father and a Christian mother, and both of whom later practiced Hinduism. She further informed the court that her family belonged to the Valluvan caste and her father and brother had SC certificates. She claimed that throughout her education, she was treated as part of the SC community.
However, the court found out that her father was from a Scheduled Caste but had converted to Christianity. The woman was born in 1990 and baptized in January 1991.
The court refused to grant her Scheduled Caste benefits after noting that there was nothing on record to show that she or her family has reconverted to Hinduism and on the contrary, there is a factual finding that the appellant still professes Christianity.
The top court said that the Scheduled Caste benefits cannot be given to individuals who have converted to Christianity unless they can demonstrate with evidence, reconversion to Hinduism and acceptance by their original caste.
“In any case, upon conversion to Christianity, one loses her caste and cannot be identified by it. As the factum of reconversion is disputed, there must be more than a mere claim. The conversion had not happened by any ceremony or through Arya Samaj. No public declaration was effected. There is nothing on record to show that she or her family has reconverted to Hinduism and on the contrary, there is a factual finding that the appellant still professes Christianity. As noticed above, the evidence on hand is also against the appellant. Therefore, the contention raised on the side of the appellant that the caste would be under eclipse upon conversion and resumption of the caste upon reconversion, is unsustainable in the facts of the case,” the order read.
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