New Delhi: The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has ruled that a person who converts to Islam cannot claim the status of a Backward Class Muslim, striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order (G.O.) that had permitted such claims. The court underlined that the G.O. was not only “unconstitutional” but “un-islamic” as well.The ruling came as the court was hearing a petition filed in 2022 by a Thoothukudi resident born to Hindu parents who had converted to Islam in 2015. After changing his name, he sought a community certificate identifying him as ‘Muslim Lebbai’. The Kayathar Tahsildar turned down the application after which he approached the court The Hindu reported.While the petition was pending, the Tamil Nadu government issued a 2024 G.O. that allowed converts to Islam from Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes, Denotified Communities, or Scheduled Castes to be treated as BC (Muslim) and receive a community certificate under one of the seven notified Muslim sects. Those who had converted from the so-called forward communities, however, were excluded from this benefit. The state had asserted that the order merely ensured those already availing reservation benefits would not lose them upon converting to Islam.During the hearing, a division bench of Justices G.R. Swaminathan and P.B. Balaji traced the legal position back to a 1951 Madras high court judgment, later endorsed by the Supreme Court, which had held that a Hindu converting to Islam becomes simply a Muslim, ceasing to belong to any caste or sub-caste in the process, the report mentioned.The bench observed that Islamic preachers and Christian missionaries had underlined that their faiths offered social equality in contrast to Hinduism’s caste structure, which made it contradictory to assert a hierarchy within Islam.“Having taken such a stand for effecting conversions, it is disingenuous to claim that there is hierarchy in Islam also. In our respectful view, categorising certain sects as Backward and the remaining as Forward is antithetical to Quranic injunctions. Islam seeks to establish an egalitarian society. Everyone is equal in the eye of God. There is no social hierarchy,” the court was quoted as saying.The judges also addressed the ground reality that Muslim communities in India are socially stratified but noted that this stratification is rooted in birth, not faith.“Be that as it may, due to historical reasons, the Islamic society is also stratified into various communities. One can even boldly remark that they are akin to caste in Hinduism. Just as caste is determined by birth, one is a Rowther or Marakkayar or Deccani Muslim by birth alone. It is ridiculous to suggest that one can be converted into a Rowther Muslim,” the bench were quoted as saying.It added: “The doctrine of separation of powers is an entrenched principle in the constitution and that it is an essential constituent of rule of law. This principle applies to the final judgments of the courts. The legislature cannot declare any decision of a court of law to be void or of no effect,” it said.The bench also flagged that by clubbing Scheduled Caste converts with Backward Class converts under the same seven-sect framework, the state had lumped together categories that the Supreme Court has consistently treated as distinct, TH report added.“That is exactly what the government has done by recognising that there can be conversion to any one of the seven sects of Muslims identified as Backward Class Muslim. The sheer arbitrariness of the impugned G.O. becomes manifest for one more reason. The Backward Classes Commission’s recommendation as well as the G.O. provide for accommodating BC/MBC/DNC/SC convertees in any one of the seven slots. A SC who is at the bottom-most rung of the social ladder is put on par with a BC. The Supreme Court in a catena of decisions has held that OBCs and SCs form separate categories,” the court said.The bench disposed the petition. “We have no option but to conclude that only to undo the judgments of the court, has the government come out with an innovation that is not only unconstitutional but also un-Islamic. Once we find that the G.O is illegal, it is our bounden judicial duty to declare it to be so. We accordingly declare that the G.O is unconstitutional.”