The Supreme Court (Selvarani Case) held that religious conversion without any actual belief, largely intended to procure quota benefits, defeats the social ethos of the reservation policy and amounts to a fraud on the Constitution.
The judgment was based on an appeal filed by a woman from Puducherry, Selvarani - a Christian by birth.
She sought conferment of a Scheduled Caste community certificate on the ground that she had embraced Hinduism.
If the purpose of conversion is largely to derive the benefits of reservation but not with any actual belief on the other religion, cannot be permitted.