Supreme Court upholds Madras HC order quashing Tamil Nadu reservation notification for converts to Islam

On October 15, 2026, India's Supreme Court upheld a Madras High Court order quashing a Tamil Nadu government notification that provided reservation benefits to converts to Islam. The ruling was delivered by a bench headed by Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra. The court held that membership in a notified backward Muslim community does not automatically extend to a member of a backward Hindu community who converts to Islam.

The decision deemed the government's notification of a community as backward for reservation purposes as creating an "artificial group," which would gain access to reservation benefits associated with backward communities. Justice Mishra emphasized that the government's decision to classify a community as backward for reservations should be preceded by statutory social checks.