Bengaluru, June 27 -- The Madras High Court has struck down a Tamil Nadu government order (GO) that allowed persons from backward classes, most backward classes, denotified communities, and scheduled castes, who converted to Islam, to be treated as Backward Class Muslims (BCM) and continue availing associated reservation benefits. In an order passed on Thursday, a bench of justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji held that the GO, which was notified by the then Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government on March 9, 2024, was "unconstitutional." The bench said the state could not, through an executive order, override binding judicial precedents which have consistently held that a person who converts to Islam becomes "just a Muslim" and cannot claim membership of one of the state's seven notified BCM communities. "We hold that a convert to Islam cannot claim the status of BCM. He is only a Muslim and that's all there is to it," the HC said. The seven communities recognised as BCM were "Ansar, Dekkani Muslims, Dubekula, Labbais (including Rowther and Marakayar), Mapilla, Sheik and Syed." They were grouped under a separate Backward Class Muslim category through another GO notified in July 2008, and are reflected in the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act. The GO had directed that persons belonging to Backward Classes, Most Backward Class, Denotified Communities and SC communities, who embraced Islam will continue to receive reservation benefits by being treated as BCM. It also permitted issuance of community certificates identifying such converts as belonging to any one of the state's seven notified BCM communities making them eligible for reservation under the BCM category. The HC, however, held that the state's assumption that a convert could be issued a certificate showing membership of one of those communities was "legally and conceptually unsustainable." The bench also cited a 1951 judgment of the Madras HC, which had held that when a Hindu converts to Islam, the person becomes a Muslim only and not a member of any particular Muslim community such as Labbai, Rowther, Marakkayar or Syed. Such communities, the bench said, are birth-based. One can be born into them, but one cannot acquire membership simply by converting. The bench was hearing a petition filed by Sameer Ahamed, a man born into a Hindu family who converted to Islam in 2015, and later sought a certificate identifying him as a Muslim Labbai. The court in its present order, said that Ahamed's petition had no legal basis when it was filed in 2022 and acquired significance only after the state issued the 2024 GO....