Madurai: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has held that a person who converts to Islam does not automatically become entitled to the Backward Class Muslim (BC Muslim) category for reservation purposes. The court also declared a 2024 Tamil Nadu Government Order (G.O.) providing such classification unconstitutional.

A Division Bench comprising Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P.B. Balaji delivered the judgment while hearing a petition filed by a Thoothukudi resident who had converted from Hinduism to Islam in 2015 and later sought a community certificate identifying him as belonging to the “Muslim Lebbai” community.

The petitioner’s request was rejected by the Tahsildar, following which he approached the High Court.

During the hearing, the State government defended the 2024 Government Order, submitting that persons belonging to Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities (DNC), and Scheduled Castes (SC) who convert to Islam should continue receiving reservation benefits under the BC (Muslim) category.

The Bench, however, referred to earlier judicial precedents, including a 1951 Madras High Court judgment that was subsequently affirmed by the Supreme Court, and held that conversion changes a person’s religious identity but does not automatically confer membership of a birth-based Muslim community for reservation purposes.

The court observed that recognised Muslim communities such as Lebbai, Rowther and Marakkayar are generally linked to birth and cannot automatically be acquired solely through conversion.

The Bench further held that an executive order cannot override binding judicial precedents and stated that the 2024 Government Order lacked constitutional backing. It also observed that clubbing converts from different reservation categories into a single BC (Muslim) category was inconsistent with established legal principles governing reservations.

Accordingly, the High Court declared the 2024 Government Order unconstitutional and disposed of the petition.

The judgment may be subject to further legal proceedings or appeal before a higher court.