From The Hindu · Abhinay Lakshman · · 2m
Supreme Court splits OBC reservation on religious conversion
India's top court rules that Hindu OBC members lose quota benefits when they convert to another faith, reopening debate on whether reservation should be religion-neutral.
In brief
India's top court rules that Hindu OBC members lose quota benefits when they convert to another faith, reopening debate on whether reservation should be religion-neutral. India's Supreme Court ruled October fifteenth that Hindu OBC members lose reservation entitlement upon converting to another religion, challenging…
Court rules on OBC conversion
The Supreme Court of India decided October fifteenth that a Hindu OBC person loses reservation entitlement upon converting to another religion, opening debate on OBC classification neutrality.
How OBC classification works
Since the nineteen ninety-two Indra Sawhney versus Union of India judgment, OBC classification has remained religion-neutral. Communities are examined for eleven social, educational and economic backwardness indicators.
The court's reasoning on backwardness
Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar ruled that the source of social backwardness must be considered. For Hindu OBCs, reservation entitlement is conditioned on membership of the Hindu social order.
Caste as foundational to Hindu backwardness
The court noted that in Hindu society, caste is the foundational institution determining social and other manifestations of backwardness, though Indra Sawhney prevented caste being the sole OBC criterion.
Conversion changes social order
When an OBC person converts to another faith, they enter a different social order, altering the source of their social backwardness, even if educational and economic backwardness may continue.
Departure from Indra Sawhney approach
The twenty twenty-six judgment distinguishes between caste stratification in Hindu society and caste-like stratifications in non-Hindu orders, departing from Indra Sawhney's view that caste operated across all faiths.
Non-Hindu communities can still be OBC
The Supreme Court clarifies that non-Hindu communities can be classified as OBC, but distinguishes between sources of backwardness for Hindu OBCs and non-Hindu OBCs on continuing backwardness for converts.
Religion-neutrality now contested
The judgment throws open the religion-neutrality of OBC classification for debate after decades of treating it as religion-neutral in practice and policy implementation across Indian states.
The one thing
India's Supreme Court ruled October fifteenth that Hindu OBC members lose reservation entitlement upon converting to another religion, challenging decades of religion-neutral OBC classification policy.
