SC to examine plea for extending benefits of reservation to Dalit converts in January

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would examine a plea for extending benefit of reservation to Dalit converted to Christianity and Islam in January as the Centre contended it had appointed former CJI K G Bakakrishnan to head a commission to examine the claims.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath said the court would first consider if it should await the report of the Commission or decide the issue on the basis of available materials.

The Centre, led by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, submitted said the Union government had not accepted a report of Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission report of 2007 which recommended for recognising Dalits in Christianity and Islam as well. It had termed the Commission's report "flawed".

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Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for one of the petitioners, contended that it is entirely unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of religion. The Dalits in Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism are included for reservation but others not, he said, adding the Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission has already said this is discriminatory.

The bench, on this, said this must be predicated on the premise that the caste system was part of Hinduism.

Senior advocates C U Singh and Sanjay Hegde, appearing for other petitioners, supported the plea by Bhushan.

Solicitor General Mehta, however, said a member of Scheduled Castes, if converted to Christianity, assumed new name, identity and title on assumption that he would become more acceptable. He also said the Union government has in October, 2022 appointed a Commission under chairmanship of Justice Balakrishnan to examine the issue as it did not accept the report of Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission.

To this, Bhushan said, this would further delay the adjudication of the matter.

The bench, however, said it would hear the matter in January, 2023 on the aspect whether it should stay its hands till report of the Justice Balakrishnan comes or decide the matter on the basis of available materials.

In a written response filed in November, the Union government had said that a plea for granting status of Scheduled Caste to Dalits, who converted to Christianity and Islam, can't be allowed as they did not suffer the social stigma like untouchability.

The identification of SC status is centered around a specific social stigma and the connected backwardness which is limited to the communities recognised under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, it said.

It would be affecting the rights of the SC groups if all the converts are arbitrarily given the perks of reservation without examining the aspect of social disability, the government had said.