'Dalit Converts Not Under SC/ST Act': A Colonial‑Era Logic in a 21st‑Century Courtroom
On, 2025 the Andhra Pradesh high court set aside criminal proceedings brought under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The petitioner, a Dalit by birth who is now a pastor, was told that his choice of Christianity placed him outside the Scheduled Caste fold and therefore outside the Act’s protection.
The judge leaned on paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order of 1950, a clause that denies SC recognition to anyone who does not profess Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism. The template itself was borrowed from the Government of India Scheduled Castes Order of 1936, issued under the colonial Government of India Act of 1935. That order limited the category of Scheduled Castes to Hindus, based on the belief that untouchability was exclusive to the Hindu social order. The 1950 Presidential Order carried that framework forward, initially applying only to Hindus. Although Parliament later amended it to include Sikhs in 1956 and Buddhists in 1990, the exclusion of Dalit Christians and Muslims has remained unchanged to this day.
Data show caste survives conversion
Empirical work, however, contradicts that pious hope. A March 2021 IndiaSpend study that mined National Sample Survey micro‑data found no practical difference in rates of poverty, landlessness or exposure to manual scavenging between Dalit Hindus and Dalit Christians.
Field researchers have gone deeper than numbers. Reports across states document separate pews, segregated cemeteries and a near absence of Dalit clergy – proof that caste prejudice survives even within the Church. Caste endures through social practice, not scripture, shaping who may marry, sit side by side in church or be buried together.
Political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot observes that in episodes of violence across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, the victims were attacked not because they were Christians but because they were “untouchables” who had converted to Christianity.
A constitutional contradiction
The judgment exposes a sharp mismatch between statutory text and constitutional promise. Article 15 bars discrimination “on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth”. Yet the 1950 order writes a religious test into the very definition of caste. By linking protection to faith, the state forces Dalit converts to choose between conscience and civil rights.
The result is perverse. Converts lose reservation in classrooms and job queues; they also lose the stronger policing and prosecution tools that the PoA Act provides. Many therefore legally reconvert, reclaiming their Hindu status to restore SC certificates and regain reservation protections. A law meant to punish discrimination has ended up rewarding subterfuge and punishing honesty.
Political consequences and social costs
A ruling that looks tidy on paper carries awkward politics. It supports a majoritarian story that caste is an internal Hindu matter and that minorities who demand relief are seeking double privilege. In truth it leaves Dalit Christians in a no‑man’s‑land, despised as untouchable by society, dismissed as ineligible by the state.
Because the PoA Act cannot be invoked, crimes against Dalit Christians are often registered under vanilla provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which lack the same victim‑centred safeguards. The deterrent signal that Parliament intended is lost, and impunity thrives.
Parliament’s unfinished business
Expert panels have already mapped the way forward. The Sachar Committee in 2006 wrote that conversion had not lifted Dalit Christians or Dalit Muslims from deprivation. The Justice Ranganath Misra Commission in 2007 proposed deleting the religious bar altogether and awarding SC status to all Dalits.
Article 341 clause 2 allows Parliament to amend the 1950 Order by a simple majority. Striking the religious test would not open a floodgate. Christians are 2.3% of the national population, and only a share of them are Dalit. Recognition would still hinge on belonging to one of the castes already scheduled. Faith would cease to be the gatekeeper; social disability would remain the touchstone.
Beyond statute
Legislation must be matched with data. Most states do not collect caste‑segregated information on Christians or Muslims, which makes denial easy and policy design impossible. The upcoming caste census must include disaggregated figures for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims to ensure policy debates rest on hard data rather than conjecture.
Churches have their own work to do. They demand parity in law, yet too many parishes still assign Dalits the back bench. Equality conferred by Parliament will ring hollow if equality is denied at the Sunday service. Reform of hearts must accompany reform of statutes.
Justice postponed
Reservation and the PoA Act are not poverty dole; they are instruments of restorative justice. Denying them to Dalit Christians because they followed their conscience empties the Constitution’s promise of equal citizenship. The Andhra Pradesh High Court applied a rule that history has overtaken. Parliament now holds the responsibility to bring the rule into line with reality.
Until that day Dalit Christians will remain in constitutional twilight, marked as untouchable by society yet unseen by the law that exists to shield the untouchable. A republic that claims both secularism and social justice should not leave any citizen in that dark.
Jehosh Paul is a lawyer and research consultant. Views expressed are personal.
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