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Informist, Tuesday, Mar. 24, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Tuesday held that only Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists can claim Scheduled Caste status and conversion to any other religion apart from these results in immediate and complete loss of this status. A statutory benefit, protection, reservation, entitlement under the Constitution or under any enactment of Parliament given to a member of Scheduled Caste cannot be extended to any other person belonging to religions different from Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.

 

A person cannot simultaneously profess and practice a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism, which were specified in Clause 3 of Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, and claim membership of a Scheduled Caste at the same time. A person who professes and practices such religion for personal, social and spiritual purposes cannot in law, assert membership of a Scheduled Caste for the purpose of securing statutory benefits, said a bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan. The two positions are mutually exclusive and contrary to the Constitutional scheme, they added.

 

In cases where a person claims to have reconverted from other religions back to Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist, there must be clear proof that the person originally belonged to a caste notified under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, said the court. There must be credible and unimpeachable evidence of bona fide reconversion to the original religion, accompanied by complete and unequivocal renunciation of the religion to which conversion had taken place, said the court. Further, mere self-proclamation is insufficient, the community must recognise and accept the person as one of their own, the court added.

 

With respect to Scheduled Tribes, the top court said that unlike the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 does not prescribe religion-based exclusion. The determination of Scheduled Tribe status, therefore, cannot rest on conversion alone, but must turn on whether the claimant continues to possess and is recognised for the essential attributes of tribal identity, including customary practices, social organisation, community life, and acceptance by the concerned tribal community, said the court.

 

The top court quashed criminal proceedings against six accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 filed by Chinthada Anand, who was originally born in the Madiga community of Scheduled Caste under Hinduism, but embraced Christianity at a later stage in life. The top court rejected Anand's argument that he continues to retain his Scheduled Caste status by birth notwithstanding such conversion. Once Anand converted to Christianity, the caste status, which he earlier enjoyed as a member of the Madiga community, stood eclipsed in the eyes of law, said the top court.

 

Anand had alleged that six accused had assaulted him and abused him by referring to his caste. This abuse to him was on account of his religious activities and his presence in a village as a pastor, said Anand.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

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