Rethinking the 'Absolute Bar' on Scheduled Caste Status in India

• The Indian Supreme Court maintains an 'absolute bar' on Scheduled Caste (SC) status for Dalit converts to religions other than Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
• This legal framework excludes millions who continue to face caste-based discrimination after changing their religion, creating a disconnect between law and social reality.

Legal Framework

• Clause 3 of the 1950 Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order limits SC status to specific religions.
• Losing SC status upon conversion results in the forfeiture of reservation quotas, scholarships, and protections under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• The Supreme Court defines SC status as a matter of legal recognition rather than lived identity, often characterizing claims by converts as a "fraud on the Constitution."

Empirical Challenges

• Sociological studies and data confirm that caste-based violence, social segregation, and occupational immobility persist among Dalit converts to Islam and Christianity.
• Despite findings by the 2007 Ranganath Mishra Commission recommending religion-neutral SC status, policy remains stalled.
• The Commission of Inquiry under K G Balakrishnan, established in 2022, has repeatedly extended its reporting deadline to April 2026, leaving millions in legal limbo.

Implications

• The current approach creates a constitutional paradox where the state acknowledges caste persists within some religions but ignores it in others.
• This exclusion effectively penalizes the exercise of religious freedom (Article 25), as changing faith entails the loss of vital socio-economic safeguards.
• International human rights standards, such as those under the ICCPR and CERD, prioritize addressing lived disadvantage rather than formal religious identity, highlighting India's outlier status in its religion-linked approach to caste.