Madurai: The Madras High Court Madurai Bench said the convertee (coverted) who is already enjoying the benefit of reservation prior to his conversion alone can be considered as BC (Muslim). However, that exercise will have to be undertaken only by the Government, the Bench ruled while disposing a writ petition seeking to consider an Most Backward Class (MBC) Hindu man who converted to Islam as BC (Muslim).
The petitioner who appeared for Group II examination conducted by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) learnt through RTI that his candidature was considered in the open category and not under BC (Muslim). While the petitioner contended the act as illegal as he had already submitted a Community Certificate issued by competent authority certifying his community as Labbai, the Court slammed the technical claim and termed it can be used as means to defeat the social justice.
If a Hindu belonging to the “others category” gets converted to Islam and manages to obtain certificate as if he or she belongs to one of the seven (1.Ansar, 2.Dekkani Muslims, 3.Dudekula, 4.Labbais including Rowthar and Marakayar (whether their spoken language is Tamil or Urdu), 5.Mapilla, 6.Sheik, and 7.Syed) notified groups, the very purpose of social justice can be defeated by such clever stratagems, Justice GR Swaminathan said.
According to the petitioner, the certificate issued by the Kazi of Tamil Nadu Government for Ramanathapuram read that Sathiyamoorthy S/o.Lakshmanan had embraced Islam on his own volition and that he has joined the Muslim Jamat as a Member and that he is following Islamic norms and principles. "This certificate declaring the petitioner's conversion only states that the petitioner has become a Muslim and nothing more," Swaminathan said.
Conversion & Community
"When a Hindu gets converted to Islam, he becomes just a Mussalman and his place in Muslim society is not determined by the caste to which he belonged before his conversion. When the Kazi does not declare that the convertee is to be treated as belonging to the group of Labbais, I fail to understand as to how a revenue authority of a secular government can fix the converted individual in a particular slot or pigeon-hole," the Judge wondered.
The Government of Tamil Nadu had in as many as four letters laid down that the candidates who have converted to Islam from other religion will be considered only as “others category”. The jurisdictional Deputy Tahsildar had acted irregularly by breaching the mandate set out in the government letters which are binding on him.
"A person cannot carry his community of birth even after conversion," the Court noted. Whether such a person should be given the benefit of reservation even after conversion is a question that is pending adjudication before the Supreme Court, the Judge said.
