‘He’s just a Muslim’: Madras High Court rejects Tamil Nadu’s order to allow converts to reserve seats in BCM

The Madras High Court On Friday, they violated the Tamil Nadu government’s law that allowed people from Backward Classes (BC), Most Backward Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities (DNC) and Scheduled Castes (SC) who had converted to Islam to continue receiving benefits under the category of Backward Class Muslim (BCM).A division bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji, in their order, said the then DMK government’s March 9, 2024 order was unconstitutional. The court said that the authorities cannot ignore the provisions of the government.“We believe that a convert to Islam cannot say that he is a Backward Muslim. He is just a Muslim and that is all,” the bench said.The court noted that Tamil Nadu recognizes seven districts under the BCM category. They said that these communities are known by birth and a person who converts to Islam cannot claim to be one of them.The judges said that the 2024 state law wrongly assumes that a convert can be issued a group certificate indicating membership of one of the seven communities. The court said the decision was legally untenable.Referring to the judgment of the Madras High Court in 1951, the bench said that when a Hindu converts to Islam, that person becomes a Muslim and does not belong to a particular Muslim sect like Labbai, Rowther, Marakkayar or Syed.The bench said that Islam teaches equality and does not recognize human hierarchy. However, it said that, over time, the Muslim community has also had separate birth communities, similar to the Hindu tribes.