Youth For Equality (YFE), a research and advocacy organisation, has moved the Supreme Court by filing an Intervention Application in support of the Madras High Court’s June 25, 2026 judgment that struck down a Tamil Nadu government order allowing Hindu converts to Islam to claim reservation under the Backwards Class Muslim (BCM) quota.
The intervention, filed through Advocate Shrutunjaya Bharadwaj, seeks to support the High Court’s decision, arguing that the government order is constitutionally untenable because it permits individuals who convert to Islam to be assigned to one of seven notified BCM communities and to avail reservation benefits under that category.
YFE, which has previously challenged reservation policies exceeding the Supreme Court’s 50 per cent ceiling in states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Rajasthan, contends that the Tamil Nadu government’s policy goes beyond the constitutional framework governing affirmative action.
According to the application, the government order enables members of more than 350 notified HinduBackwardsd Class (BC), Most Backwards Classes (MBC), Denotified Communities (DNC), Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities to acquire a new Muslim caste identity merely by converting to Islam. YFE argues that such a policy effectively allows the State to facilitate demographic change through religious conversion, something it describes as constitutionally impermissible.
The organisation has also challenged the provision under which a private Muslim religious body, the Jamath, is authorised to assign a Muslim caste identity to a Hindu convert. It argues that identifying caste or backward class status is a sovereign constitutional function that cannot be delegated to a non-statutory religious institution.
In its application, YFE submits that caste-based reservations are intended to address historical social and educational disadvantages determined by birth, and that the executive cannot create a new caste identity through an administrative order.
The intervention further argues that the impugned government order creates a direct State incentive for religious conversion by extending reservation benefits to those who convert from Hinduism to Islam. To support this claim, YFE has relied on admission and recruitment data, asserting that the incentive is substantial.
It points out that the lowest rank admitted under the BCM category stood at 80,758, compared to 62,857 under the general Backwards Class category, a gap of nearly 18,000 ranks. The application also claims that BCM candidates qualified with lower score cut-offs than candidates in the BC category across multiple government recruitment processes.
According to YFE, a person converting to Islam under the policy becomes eligible not only for reservation under the BCM quota in government educational institutions and public employment but also gains access to constitutional and statutory benefits available to religious minorities, including opportunities in minority educational institutions protected under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution.
The organisation argues that the combination of reservation benefits and minority rights creates what it terms an unconstitutional material incentive for religious conversion.
On these grounds, Youth For Equality has urged the Supreme Court to uphold the Madras High Court’s judgment striking down the Tamil Nadu government order. The matter is expected to be heard as part of the proceedings challenging the High Court’s verdict.
