Conversion to Christianity results in loss of Scheduled Caste status: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an Andhra Pradesh High Court ruling holding that a person who has converted to Christianity and continues to profess and practice the faith cannot claim the status of a Scheduled Caste. 

A Bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N.V. Anjaria said that “no person who professes a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism can be regarded as a member of the Scheduled Caste,” adding that conversion to any other religion results in the “immediate and complete loss” of such status.

Upholding the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s view, the apex court held that the bar under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, is “absolute” and admits no exception.

The Justice Mishra-led Bench observed that a person cannot simultaneously profess another religion and claim Scheduled Caste status. In its decision, the Supreme Court noted that the appellant had continued to profess Christianity and had been functioning as a pastor for over a decade, conducting regular Sunday prayers, leaving “no room for doubt” about his religious identity.

 “In the present case, it is not the case of the petitioner that he reconverted from Christianity to his original religion or has been accepted back in the folds of the Madiga community. On the contrary, the evidence establishes that the appellant continued to profess Christianity… These concurrent facts leave no room for doubt that he continued to remain a Christian,” the Justice Mishra-led Bench observed.

It further held that “having converted to Christianity, the petitioner cannot continue to be a member of the Scheduled Caste community,” and consequently could not invoke the provisions of the SC/ST Act, since the caste system is alien to Christianity. (IANS)

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