The Supreme Court on Thursday held that Hindus belonging to backward classes cannot claim quota benefits of that category after converting to Islam, saying backwardness suffered in the antecedent social order can’t be carried forward.
Read more: Hindus who convert to another religion can’t claim reservation: SC upholds Madras HC order on quota
The court also said that a person professing a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism cannot be believed to be a member of a scheduled caste.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia described the top court’s judgement as “historic” and attacked the Congress and other opposition parties.
“The appeasement politics of the ‘Congress Jinna Party’ has got a massive blow after the judgement was delivered,” he said.
Read more: Hindus who convert to another religion can’t claim reservation: SC upholds Madras HC order on quotaBhatia alleged that the Congress has always advocated that reservation be given to people professing Islam.
He claimed that the apex court’s judgement in the matter is also a “major blow” to the Samajwadi Party and TMC as they too practised “appeasement politics” when they were in power in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal respectively.
Earlier, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Shree Chandrashekhar dismissed the Tamil Nadu government’s plea against the Madras High Court order which held that a person converting to Islam can’t claim reservation under Backward Class (Muslim) category, solely on the basis of conversion.
While upholding the high court order which had quashed the Tamil Nadu government’s notification to grant reservation to converted Muslims, the top court said it called for no interference.
