Religious conversion merely to avail quota benefits without “actual belief” in the other religion would amount to fraud on the Constitution, the Supreme Court has ruled.
The apex court made this observation while upholding a Madras High Court order denying Scheduled Caste certificate to a Chrisitian convert woman who claims to be still embracing Hinduism while seeking the certificate for a Clerk job in Puducherry under scheduled caste category.
A Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and R Mahadevan said that if the purpose of conversion/ reconversion is only to derive the benefit of reservation, the same cannot be allowed since it will defeat the objective of providing quota to the socially backward communities, as per a report by Bar and Bench.
The Supreme Court said that the State government's field verification clearly revealed that the marriage of appellant's parents was registered under the Indian Christian Marriage Act.
Further, her baptism and court attendance were also documented and it showed that she was born as a Christian. There was nothing on record to show that she had reconverted to Hinduism, the Court noted.
"In the present case, the appellant was a born Christian and could not be associated with any caste. In any case, upon conversion to Christianity, one loses her caste and cannot be identified by it. As the factum of reconversion is disputed, there must be more than a mere claim. The conversion had not happened by any ceremony or through Arya Samaj. No public declaration was effected. There is nothing on record to show that she or her family has reconverted to Hinduism and on the contrary, there is a factual finding that the appellant still professes Christianity," the Court noted.