Jamiat moves apex court seeking SC status for Dalit Muslims

New Delhi: Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind on Tuesday sought the Supreme Court to direct the Centre to grant Scheduled Caste status to Dalit Muslims, The Times of India reported.

Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind was trying to ensure reservations for Dalit Muslims in government jobs and admission to educational institutions.

While applying to be a party in a petition seeking to grant SC status to Dalit Christians, Jamiat said that Islam is based on the non-negotiable principles of equality among all people, calling it as the "core doctrine of the faith".

While accepting the prevalence of caste in the community, Jamiat said in Islamic core philosophy caste system is not acknowledged as the society in which it evolved had no concept of caste.

But it went on to acknowledge that the truth of the caste systems could not be denied in Indian society.

It also said that the 1950 Presidential Order had not included Dalit Muslims in SC category on the assumption of Islam being a caste-less religion.

Jamiat argued that some backward members of the Muslim community are considered as Other Backward Classes (OBCs) on the basis of caste, according to the report.

While regarding Dalits of Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities as Scheduled Caste, denying the same on religious ground to Muslims, it said, is discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.

"Denial of the SC status to Dalit Muslims deprives them of political, educational and other benefits given to non-Muslim and non-Christian SC persons and this is a calculated historical wrong to restrain the free profession, practice and propagation of religion," Jamait was quoted as saying.