Scheduled caste status only for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs: SC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Tuesday said no person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism shall be a member of Scheduled Caste. It held that a person from the Scheduled Caste community lost the status after converting to a religion other than Buddhism and Sikhism and could not invoke Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan said the bar under Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 was "categorical and absolute". It said conversion to any religion not specified in Clause 3 resulted in immediate and complete loss of Scheduled Caste status regardless of birth.

The bench noted that Clause 3, which was originally enacted in 1950, restricted Scheduled Caste status to persons professing the Hindu religion only. It was amended in 1956 to include the Sikh religion and extended to the Buddhist religion in 1990.

"No statutory benefit, protection, reservation, or entitlement under the Constitution or under any enactment of Parliament or State Legislature that is predicated upon the membership of a Scheduled Caste can be claimed by or extended to any person who, by operation of Clause 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, is not deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. This bar is absolute and admits no exception," the bench said.

The court upheld the order of Andhra Pradesh HC, which had quashed a case under SC/ST(Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the gro-unds that the complainant had embraced Christianity and could not invoke the law.

With respect to Scheduled Tribes, the bench clarified that unlike the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 did 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," it said.



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