Supreme Court upholds Madras HC order quashing Tamil Nadu reservation notification for converts to Islam
The Supreme Court of India has upheld a Madras High Court order that quashed a Tamil Nadu government notification granting reservation benefits to converts to Islam. The court ruled that conversion does not automatically entitle an individual to backward class reservation benefits without statutory social checks.
Why it matters
This decision clarifies the legal and constitutional requirements for state-mandated reservation policies regarding religious conversion.
Supreme Court of India on Thursday (October 15, 2026) rejected a Tamil Nadu government appeal seeking confirmation of the State’s policy to provide reservation benefits to members of backward classes, most backward classes, de-notified communities and Scheduled Castes to Islam.
A Bench headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra held that a member of a backward Hindu community does not automatically become a member of a notified backward Muslim community merely by going through the act of conversion to Islam.
The court held that a Tamil Nadu government order doing the same creates an “artificial group” which would access benefits of reservation associated with backward communities.
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