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sudhirkumar   28 February 2015

Reservation in government job

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a Christian(BC-C) and working in an MNC. Now I want to marry a SC(Hindu) girl who is working in a Nationalised PSU Bank under SC category. As per Christian tradition, she has to change her religion to Christianity in order to get married in a Church. She is also interested to get converted to Christianity by herself voluntarily.  I wanted to know whether she can practice Christianity without any issue or she need to change her Caste from SC to BC-C in her office records as well. If so,  please let us know the procedure as well.

Please help us in this regard. We are in a very much confused state how to handle this situation.

Thanks in advance.

 

 



Learning

 12 Replies

saravanan s (legal advisor)     28 February 2015

She can simply change her faith by conversion and continue in her job.

sudhirkumar   28 February 2015

Thank you very much for your prompt reply sir..but can she avail SC benefits legally at job Or need to change her caste to BC-C..? Please clarify..because I heard that when a Hindu(SC) gets married to a Christian at a Church then he/she should no more called as SC.

Adv k . mahesh (advocate)     28 February 2015

she has to follow on tradition not her records and if she wants to change then she has to loose her job if she got that job on that particular quote with SC category 

Advocate Ravinder (Advocate/Attorney)     01 March 2015

She has to lose her job (as she got the job under SC category) and has to apply for job afresh under BC category in the same dept showing the past experience.

 

Adv. Chandrasekhar (Advocate)     01 March 2015

1.  To avoid any problem, you both can marry under Special Marriage Act, so that you can retain your faith and she can retain her faith on record (even though she starts to go to church and believe in christianity).

2.  I doubt my friends' suggestion that she would lose all her social and economic benefits as born S.C. by converting at a future date.  I have not seen any such judgment till date.  My opinion is still she can continue her job but she cannot avail any concessions of S.C. in future after conversion.  If the marriage happens under special marriage Act,  she can avail such concessions in future.

Advocate Ravinder (Advocate/Attorney)     01 March 2015

@Adv Chandrashekar

Sir, can you give any citation on this point preferably SC.

Adv. Chandrasekhar (Advocate)     01 March 2015

@Ravinder. P, When I say that if a S.C. girl gets a job being born in S.C. community and she is S.C. at the time of her appointment and at  a later date she converts into some other religion, how  can she lose her right on the job under reservation quota retrospectively and I said that I have not seen any such judgment, why are you asking me citation?  The legal advisors who say that she will lose her right on the job under reservation retrospectively have to show citation and not me. 

sudhirkumar   01 March 2015

Thank you all for your valuable responses n suggestions. Kindly help me in this regard. Looking forward for your valuable suggestions. I totally thought there is no way other than losing job but ChandraSekhar Sir has brought a new hope. Sir, please let me know how to proceed legally with your suggestion.

T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate (Advocate)     03 March 2015

I agree with the esteemed opinion of learned Advocate Mr.Chandrasekar in this regard.  The girl if had acquired employment on the basis of the reservation applicable to her and when she was very much eligible for that at that time, there is no reason or justification to lose her job just because she has changed her religions and faith.  The privilege already availed cannot be snatched by the government on such reasons in a secular country like ours.   Matter of fact,as per the latest Supreme court verdict, the children out of her marriage would like to return back to Hinduism at a later stage, then they are also entitled to the privileges applicable and entitled to the SC community   In the present case, if the girl after converting to Christianity due to her marriage, may not be eligible to the reservation benefits subsequently.

1 Like

Adv k . mahesh (advocate)     04 March 2015

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/community-status-lapses-on-conversion-rules-madras-high-court/article4843717.ece

Community status lapses on conversion, rules Madras High Court

 

The Madras High Court has ruled that a person professing a particular religion and belonging to a backward or most backward or scheduled caste community will lose the community status on converting to another religion. Justice V. Ramasubramanian decided the question of law recently in a writ petition filed by a religious convert who claimed backward class status so that she could have better access to a government job. Dismissing the petition, Mr. Justice Ramasubramanian said, “No person can acquire backwardness or most backwardness socially, upon conversion from one religion to another. Backwardness is determined by birth and not by conversion.”

“Today, a person who belongs to a community, which is a forward community, cannot get converted to Islam and suddenly become eligible to claim the benefit of reservation available to backward class (Muslims). If this is permitted, the yardstick for determining social backwardness will be left entirely to the will of the individual. Therefore, by conversion, a person cannot acquire the social status that is normally available to persons already professing that religion,” he said.

He also pointed out that Supreme Court had held that “if a Hindu is converted to Christianity or another religion, which does not recognise caste, the conversion amounts to a loss of the said caste.” The Judge also noted that a Division Bench of the Madras High Court in 1952 ruled that “a convert ceases to have any caste.”

The petitioner, S. Yasmine, was born to a couple belonging to the Christian Nadar community, classified as backward class. She got converted to Islam and married a Muslim.

When she had crossed the age of 30, she applied for a Group IV post in the State government in 2012. She cleared the written examination.

At the time of counselling, she was told that as she had converted from Christianity to Islam, she would be treated as a candidate belonging to ‘other communities’ not entitled to any reservation.

Later, her candidature was rejected, as she had crossed 30 years, the upper age limit fixed for open category candidates.

UPPER AGE LIMIT

The upper age limit fixed for backward class communities is 35. Challenging the communication, she filed the petition for a direction that she be treated as a candidate belonging to backward class (Muslim) category. If that was done, she would fall below the upper age limit.

Dismissing her petition, the Judge said the authorities were right in treating the category to which she belonged after conversion as 'other communities'.

Adv k . mahesh (advocate)     04 March 2015

okay if agree with the above experts saying 

what if a job specially created for a category of SC (HIndu) the candidate who applied for that job is SC(Hindu) by birth and got that job after working for some time marries a christian and converts to christian

what is her status in the employment were the job is specially notified for SC (Hindu) and thus is she will get all the benefits from the date of conversion to christianity or thus the notified job will be changed to X category and what is the stand on that benefits and how come the notified authority has rights to convert a particular category job to their whims and fancies 

thus the converted candidate will get all the benefits like promotion, increments, etc., to a job which is specially created for SC(hindu) to a candidate who converted to christianity 

may be there are no judgements to my saying but there are different queries to be answered 

Adv k . mahesh (advocate)     04 March 2015

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/benefits-sought-for-sc-converts-to-christianity/article6288230.ece#comments

 

Benefits sought for SC converts to Christianity

J. S. IFTHEKHAR

COMMENT (3)   ·   PRINT   ·   T  T  
 
 

The demand for extending non-statutory concessions to converts from Scheduled Castes to Christianity is rising among both clergy and layman in the Christian community. In spite of change of religion, the SC converts also suffer from the same social disabilities as the SC Hindus and therefore should be provided similar benefits, it is said.

The A.P. State Christian Minority Finance Corporation (APSMFC) has sent a proposal to both the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments in this regard. In fact, there is already a GO (341) in this connection issued way back in 1977. But it is gathering dust with the result the Christians, a majority of whom are SC converts, are deprived of the benefits which they would have otherwise enjoyed. This GO was issued when the noted civil servant S.R. Sankaran was the Secretary, Social Welfare Department.

The main thrust of the GO is that mere change of religion should not become a bar to SCs from securing benefits which they would have been eligible to before conversion. The GO was issued in the light of the recommendations made by the State Harijan conference and the government resolved to extend the benefits to SC converts to Christianity and Buddhism. However, the SC converts will not be eligible to statutory concessions such as reservations in educational institutions and public services.

Presently the Industries Department and the Social Welfare Residential Society are implementing the GO while other departments have chosen to ignore it. Recently, the government has announced the Kalyana Laxmi scheme which seeks to provide Rs. 50,000 at the time of marriage to SC and ST girls and three acre land to landless SC families. Christians too can benefit from these schemes if the GO is implemented, it is said.

“The Telangana government is giving special focus on SCs and it is only appropriate that it implements this GO in letter and spirit,” says Navin Nicholas, managing director, APSCMFC.

For availing of scholarships, the income ceiling limit for SCs and STs is Rs. 2 lakh per annum while for Christians and minorities it is just one lakh. Similarly there are schemes like Best Available School, Toefl and GRE training and overseas scholarships for SCs. “If the GO is implemented all these schemes will be applicable to Christians also,” Mr. Nicholas said.


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