India, March 25 -- A two-member bench of the Supreme Court has reiterated that a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste (SC) loses the rights accrued to him or her as an SC if he or she converts to Christianity. The reference came in the context of a case filed by a Christian convert from an SC community under the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The Court has gone strictly by the Constitution (Scheduled Caste) Order, 1950, which says no person who professes a religion different from Hinduism (Sikhism and Buddhism were added later), shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. However, this is an occasion to revisit the question if caste is merely a Hindu institution that disappears on conversion to Christianity or Islam. A petition regarding this issue is pending in the apex court, and the Justice KG Balakrishnan Commission is expected to submit a report soon. The Justice Ranganath Mishra Commission report (2007) had recommended SC reservation for Dalit converts to Christianity and Islam, which the Centre rejected in 2022. The reality is that caste is an Indic social institution that transcends religion. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it has percolated into Christianity and Islam, as practised in India, and the conversion of faith hardly sets free an individual from a regressive social order defined by graded inequality. The opposition to amending the 1950 order has been mostly raised on flawed assumptions about caste and demographic fears. In fact, the current legal position militates against the right to religion of SCs, who may want to become a Christian or Muslim, without losing the safeguards available on account of the historical oppression they have faced. Many have sought to avoid such a situation by refusing to report the conversion in official records, thereby distorting census and other demographic data....