Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in response to a question in Rajya Sabha said that Dalit converting to Islam or Christianity cannot claim reservation benefits. He also added that those people who convert will fail to qualify to contest parliamentary or Assembly election from constituencies reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC).
Prasad was responding to a question made by BJP member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao and further elaborated on the aspect of eligibility to contest an election from reserved constituencies. Citing the para three of the Constitution (SC) Order describes that no individual is from a religion different from Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste.
However, Ravi Shankar explained that there no scheme to make an amendment in the Representation of People Act to prohibit SC/STs converted to either Islam or Christianity to compete in polls: parliamentary or Assembly elections.
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The Supreme Court in a judgement in 2015 said that a person who ceases to be a Hindu and becomes a Christian, naturally his/her social and economic disadvantages rising because of Hindu religion discontinues. Therefore, the person no longer requires protection and for this reason, he is deemed not to belong to a Scheduled Caste.
Prasad made it clear that there exists a clear difference between Dalits adopting Islam and Christianity with those choosing to adopt Hinduism.