Social stigma may continue even after conversion says Justice  Amanullah in a plea to extend reservation to converted Dalits.

The Supreme Court judge Amanullah In the matter of ghazi saadudin v/s  state of Maharashtra observed that social stigma and religious stigma two different things. I may convert to a different religion for different purpose but if the social stigma continues that is why reservation came in for the scheduled cast then why can’t the court determine whether under the constitution such compartmentalization is permissible or not.

The three judge bench of the Supreme Court was hearing petitions that sought to extend reservation benefits available to schedule caste community to Dalits  converted to Christianity and Islam.

The petition had challenged the constitution (scheduled caste) order to the extent it excludes persons who are converted to Christianity and Islam.

As per the Ranganath Mishra commission’s report It suggested to grant schedule caste status to Dalit who converted to Islam and Christianity. However the government did not accept such recommendation and eventually a new Commission was headed by former CJI KG Bal Krishnan to examine the matter.

Therefore at present, only those who are Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist can be granted the scheduled caste status.

The advocate for the petitioner contended that the state cannot discriminate on the ground of religion and seeked two refer ranganath Commission report and not wait for the report of new Commission to decide the constitutional question.

The additional solicitor general appearing for the union government contended that the constitutional issue cannot be decided until the new commission’s report. It was also contended that the one who converted to Christianity are not found to be suffering from the same disability as the schedule caste Hindu suffered.

And thus it was counter argued the concept of untouchability is not prevalent in Christianity and Islam therefore the reservation  intended for disadvantaged sections cannot be extended to the converted Dalits

Thus after hearing the both the  sides justice Kual observed that the court cannot rely on ranganath Commission report as it  was not accepted by union government and justice Amanullah suggested that the data in the said  Commission report can be referred to by the petitioner to add value to the arguments.

Written By Amruta Pawar, Semester 6^th, College: School of Law, University of Mumbai, thane sub campus

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