Hindu reconvert gets SC benefits

NEW DELHI: In a ruling that would stoke the debate over religious conversion and reconversion, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that a Christian who reconverted to Hinduism be given back his Scheduled Caste benefits. The court was hearing a case filed by KP Manu, a Christian in Kerala, who had converted to Hinduism and got a job reserved for SCs only to be sacked after a scrutiny committee cancelled his caste certificate.

While ordering that the SC benefits be restored to Manu, a SC bench of Justices Dipak Misra and V Gopala Gowda, also controversially referred to discriminations that persist when a Hindu converts to Christianity to escape the caste system. The SC ruling comes at a time when hardline Hindu groups have triggered pan-India controversy by organising 'ghar wapsi' ceremonies. Manu, whose grandparents and parents were Christians and who was also married to a Christian, had converted to Hinduism and claimed caste benefit as a Hindu Pulaya community to which his family belonged before conversion. While this helped him get a job reserved for the SCs.