New Delhi, March 25 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that a Scheduled Caste person can only belong to the Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist faith, and that those who convert to other religions - Christianity in the present case - lose that constitutional and statutory protection.
A Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice Manmohan said, ". for a person to be recognised as a member of a Scheduled Caste, he must be professing the Hindu religion or such other religions (Sikh and Buddhism) as are expressly recognised under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950."The Court made these observations while upholding the Andhra Pradesh High Court's order quashing criminal proceedings initiated by one Chinthada Anand, who claimed to belo...