The Centre has told the Supreme Court that Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity and Islam are not eligible for consideration as persons belonging to the scheduled category.
The Centre filed an affidavit on Wednesday opposing the plea seeking inclusion of Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity in the list of Scheduled Castes. The petition has argued that exclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits from the list of Scheduled Castes, when Dalits of the Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist faith are being categorised as SCs, was discriminatory.
The Centre has said that a uniform law that deals with untouchability is already applicable to all people, regardless of their religious faith. Further, the benefits accorded to Scheduled Caste converts are in tune with the benefits given to the OBCs. Therefore, the backwardness of the SC converts to Christianity, as pleaded by the instant petitioners, is duly taken care of by the state governments by providing them with benefits under the OBC category.
Opposing the argument that the Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity have been discriminated against, the Centre said the State has carved out the necessary benefits required for the social and economic uplift of the needy. The Centre pointed out that exclusion of Christianity or Islam from Scheduled Caste benefits was due to the reason that the oppressive system of untouchability was not prevalent in Christian or Islamic society.
The centre has added that the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, whose provision has now been challenged, was based on historical data that clearly established that no such backwardness or oppression was ever faced by members of Christian or Islamic society.
In fact, one of the reasons for which people from Scheduled Castes have been converting to religions like Islam or Christianity is so that they can come out of the oppressive system of untouchability, which is not prevalent at all in Christianity or Islam.
The centre said that the criteria followed in deciding whether a caste/ community is eligible for inclusion in the list of Scheduled Castes is extreme social, educational and economic backwardness arising out of the traditional practice of untouchability, practised by Hindus since time immemorial.
Further, the object of reservations and identification of Scheduled Castes is over and beyond the ‘social and economic backwardness’. According to the Centre, the dispensation in the case of Sikh and Buddhist converts cannot therefore be cited as a precedent for a similar treatment of Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity as the nature of conversions to Buddhism has been different from that of conversions to Christianity.
The affidavit has stated that the Scheduled Caste converts to Buddhism embraced Buddhism voluntarily at the call of Dr Ambedkar in 1956 on account of some innate socio-political imperatives. The original castes/ community of such converts can clearly be determined. However, this cannot be said in respect of Christians and Muslims who might have converted on account of other factors, since the “process of such conversions has taken place over the centuries”.
