Religious Conversion and Quota Benefits

Q What is the context  ?

A In a retaliatory move, a state minister has alleged about a decorated officer serving in the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), has benefitted from the reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs) despite being Muslim.

Q How is Quota and religion related ?

A 

• The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, lays down that no person professing a religion different from the Hindu or Sikh or Buddhist religion can be deemed to be a member of an SC.
• However, this provision has been amended several times.
• The original order under which only Hindus were classified as SCs, was amended to include Sikhs in 1956, and Buddhists in 1990.

Q What is the  Role of Religion in eligibility for the SC Quota ?

A 

• There is a 15 per cent quota for SCs in government jobs.
• But Hindu SCs who convert to Islam lose their SC status, and are no longer eligible for the quota.

The position on SC status and conversions are as following :

1. A person shall be held to be a member of a SC or ST if he belongs to a caste, or a tribe which has been declared as such.
2. No person who professes a religion different from the Hindu or the Sikh religion shall be deemed to be a member of the SCs.
3. Further a person belonging to a SC or ST will continue to be deemed as such irrespective of his/her marriage to a non-Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe.
4. However, a convert or re-convert to Hinduism and Sikhism shall be accepted as a member of SC if he has been received back and accepted as a member of the concerned SC.
5. No such religion-based bar, however, operates for STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Q What about STs?

A 

• The rights of a person belonging to a Scheduled Tribe are independent of his/her religious faith.

Q Is the exclusion of Muslims and Christians discriminatory?

A 

• Petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the inclusion of Muslims and Christians in the SC category.
• In 2008, the National Commission on Minorities concluded that there was a case for inclusion Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims in the SC category.
• In January 2020, the SC agreed to examine a plea by the National Council of Dalit Christians to make the government’s affirmative action programmes religion-neutral.
• The plea is pending before the court.

Q In inter-caste marriages, can mother’s caste be the caste of the couple’s child?

A 

• The child carries the caste of the father, and caste certificates are issued on this basis.
• However, courts have taken note of the surroundings in which the child was brought up.
• In Rameshbhai Dabhai Naika vs State of Gujarat & Ors (2012), the Supreme Court has set a precedence.
• In an inter-caste marriage or a marriage between a tribal and a non-tribal there may be a presumption that the child has the caste of the father.
• This presumption may be stronger in the case where husband belongs to a forward caste.
• In 2006, then Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment has proposed that children born of inter-caste marriages should get SC status if either parent belongs to a SC.

Q What is Govt. stance on this ?

A 

• In 2006, then Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment has proposed that children born of inter-caste marriages should get SC status if either parent belongs to a SC.
• A proposal was to be placed before the Cabinet in April 2008, but was withdrawn at the last minute.
• There was resistance to the suggestion from many quarters, including the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC).