The Supreme Court in Chinthada Anand v State of Andhra Pradesh reaffirmed the religious criteria for Scheduled Caste (SC) status under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950. The bench, comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Manmohan, ruled that a person who converts to Christianity ceases to be a member of the SC community. This judgment aligns with Paragraph 3 of the 1950 Order, which stipulates that only individuals professing Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism are deemed members of Scheduled Castes. The ruling emphasizes that the transition of faith to religions not mentioned in the Order results in the loss of caste-based affirmative action benefits, as these benefits are legally tied to the socio-religious framework of the specified faiths. While the 1950 Order originally included only Hindus, it was amended in 1956 to include Sikhs and in 1990 to include Buddhists, based on the recognition of persistent caste-based social disabilities within these Indic traditions.
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