India, March 26 -- When the Supreme Court recently ruled that any person actively professing a religion outside Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism cannot simultaneously claim Scheduled Caste benefits, it did something important: it shifted the focus back to the people reservation was always meant for. But behind the legal clarity lies a quieter, more painful story-that of a Dalit student who lost a college seat, a landless labourer denied a government job, and a survivor of caste violence who couldn't access protection under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Not because they were found ineligible, but because someone else was occupying their space through a certificate that no longer reflected reality.

The numbers make the scale difficult to ignore....