Plea in Supreme Court challenges Centre's new panel to examine SC status for Dalit converts

NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the centre’s decision to appoint a three-member commission, headed by former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan which has been tasked to consider the possibility of granting Scheduled Caste (SC) status to “new persons who have historically belonged to the Scheduled Castes’’ but have converted to religions other than Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

Justice KG Balakrishna was appointed by the centre on October 7, 2022, during the pendency of a plea in SC seeking scheduled caste status for Dalit Christian and Muslim converts. Currently, as per the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 only Dalits of Hindus, Sikh and Buddhist faith can be categorised as SCs.

The pleas that are currently pending before SC argue that the exclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits from the list of Scheduled Caste was discriminatory. Recently, the centre in the pleas had told SC that the government had taken a decision to not accept Justice Mishra’s report. Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission’s 2007 report for Religious and Linguistic Minorities had recommended permitting Dalits who converted to Islam and Christianity to avail of SC status.

The plea challenging centre’s recent decision has been filed by practising advocate, social activist and secretary of Pragat Padhividhar Sanghatna (PPS), a social and educational Trust who said he was a Christian of Scheduled Caste origin, belonging to the Mahar community. 

It has been argued in the plea Union government has over the years formed multiple Commissions, dating back to the first Backward Classes Commission (1955), on this subject that have already pronounced the need for according to SC status to Dalits who have converted to Islam or Christianity. 

“The apprehension of the petitioner is that if the present commission is allowed, the hearing on the main petition may be further delayed causing irreparable damage to the Christians of Scheduled caste origin, who are denied this SC privileges for the last 72 years. It is also affecting the fundamental rights of the affected community, giving speedy justice is mandatory as per Article 21,” the plea states.