Spiritual conversion ends in lack of Scheduled Caste standing: Supreme Courtroom| India Information
The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday held that conversion to Christianity and different religions ends in the lack of Scheduled Caste (SC) standing, holding that an individual who professes a religion aside from Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism can’t declare the constitutional protections out there to members of SC.
Upholding an Andhra Pradesh excessive courtroom judgment, the bench of justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan mentioned as soon as a person voluntarily converts and actively practices one other religion, the authorized entitlements tied to SC id, together with safety underneath the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, stop to use.
It endorsed the excessive courtroom’s reasoning that the constitutional scheme underneath the Structure (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, restricts the SC standing to specified religions, and that conversion past this framework mechanically disqualifies an individual from claiming such standing. The courtroom underscored that the determinative issue is the faith professed on the time of the incident, not merely the existence of a caste certificates.
The ruling arose from a case involving a pastor from Andhra Pradesh who invoked the SC/ST Act, alleging assault and caste-based abuse by sure people in his village. The accused challenged the proceedings on the bottom that the complainant, Chinthada Anand, had transformed to Christianity and was actively functioning as a pastor, thereby disentitling him from invoking protections meant completely for the SC.
The Supreme Courtroom famous that the info on document left little room for doubt. The petitioner had not claimed any reconversion to his unique religion nor any re-acceptance into his caste neighborhood. Quite the opposite, proof confirmed that he had been practising Christianity for over a decade and usually conducting prayer conferences as a pastor. The bench noticed that these “concurrent info” clearly established that he continued to profess Christianity on the time of the alleged incident, making him ineligible for the SC standing and the protections flowing from it.
The choice successfully endorses the Andhra Pradesh excessive courtroom’s April 30, 2025, ruling delivered by Justice N Harinath, which had quashed the prison proceedings initiated underneath the SC/ST Act. The excessive courtroom held that the caste system is alien to Christianity and that an individual who has voluntarily transformed can’t search the advantage of a legislation designed to handle caste-based discrimination inside the Hindu social construction and its legally recognised extensions.
The excessive courtroom rejected the argument that the continued possession of a caste certificates entitled the complainant to safety underneath the SC/ST Act. It clarified that the validity or cancellation of such a certificates is a separate administrative difficulty to be handled underneath the Andhra Pradesh (Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Lessons) Regulation of Situation of Group Certificates Act, 1993. Mere non-cancellation, it held, doesn’t revive or maintain eligibility as soon as conversion has taken place.
The case traces again to a 2021 grievance filed by Anand from Guntur district, who alleged that sure people opposed his evangelical actions, assaulted him, and used caste-based slurs. Primarily based on his grievance, police registered offences underneath provisions of the SC/ST Act in addition to the Indian Penal Code and filed a cost sheet.
One of many accused, Akkala Rami Reddy, approached the excessive courtroom looking for quashing of the case, arguing that the invocation of the SC/ST Act was legally untenable given the complainant’s admitted conversion.
Agreeing with this rivalry, the excessive courtroom held that the protecting framework of the SC/ST Act is meant particularly for members of the SCs and Scheduled Tribes, and can’t be prolonged to those that have chosen to exit that social and authorized class by changing to a different faith. It noticed that permitting such claims would quantity to a misuse of the statute.
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