The Supreme Court upheld the Madras High Court ruling against automatic reservation after conversion to Islam. The judgment clarifies that pre-conversion caste status cannot determine post-conversion quota eligibility.

Supreme Court rejects Tamil Nadu's bid to extend reservation benefits to Muslim converts, deeming conversion creates an artificial group lacking statutory backing.

Tamil Nadu argued that conversion does not erase the social and educational disadvantages linked to a person’s caste background. Its policy sought to ensure that people who already received reservation benefits did not lose them solely because they embraced Islam.

The Supreme Court ruled that individuals converting from Hinduism to another religion lose caste-based reservation benefits, upholding a Madras High Court order.  

The case revolved around whether a person who converts to another religion can claim reservation benefits on the basis of their previous social category or become eligible for reservation.

A government cannot simply transfer a person from an earlier caste or community category into a new reservation-bearing group through an executive order. This is a significant check on arbitrary reservation policy. | OpIndia News

The Supreme Court observed, "The declaration made by the High Court that the impugned GO itself (is) unsustainable in law calls for no interference." | OpIndia News