Did Chhattisgarh CM give the order to cancel the caste certificate of tribals and Christians who left Hinduism? Read- fact check

Reservation is a sensitive and burning issue in India. Various claims are made about reservations. One claim was added to these. Social media users are claiming that the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh has ordered that the caste certificate of tribals and Christians who have changed their religion should be canceled.

A Facebook user named Gondwana Deepak Kranti posted a picture with the caption, “Chhattisgarh CM’s big decision, Christians who change religion will not get the benefit of reservation”.

Source: Facebook

In this picture, the office block development officer has been quoted saying that tribals who convert in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Ranchi: Jharkhand will not get caste certificates. Now scheduled tribes (STs) will not be issued caste certificates only on the basis of khatiyan ( Document for identifying land). The applicant will be examined first. The caste certificate will be issued only after examining his customs, marriage, and the practice of succession. Only those who follow the practice of customs, marriage, and succession from the actual Scheduled Tribes will be considered eligible to take advantage of reservation on the basis of caste certificate. Such tribals, who have converted to Christianity or other religions, will not be given caste certificates. Not only this but those who have been given caste certificates in the past, it will also be canceled after investigation. Following the advice from the Advocate General, the Chief Minister has ordered the Personnel Department to issue a circular in this regard.

Meanwhile, many other social media users are sharing a similar claim-

Fact check:

To analyze the originality of the viral claim, the DFRAC team searched on Google through different keywords, but we could not find any such news published by any media house anywhere. Then we scrolled the official Twitter handle of Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and found a tweet from him, in which he wrote, “We are committed to the preservation interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes. We have filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Chhattisgarh high court quashing the 58 percent reservation. This battle will be fought with full engrossment, tact, and honesty. Jai Johar!”

Source: Twitter

After this, the DFRAC team did a simple search on Google with the help of some other special keywords about this. The DFRAC team found a lot of reports quoting reservations.

Titled, “Will Dalits who convert get reservation or not?” In the report published by Zee Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh, it has been told whether Dalits who convert to Islam and Christianity will get the benefit of reservation or not. An investigation has begun. The Centre has set up a commission headed by former Chief Justice Balakrishnan to look into the status of Dalits converting to Christianity or Muslim religion and submit its report to the central government.

According to the report, many petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court, in which it has been demanded to continue to give the benefit of reservation to Dalits who convert to Islam or Christianity. The petitions have also sought a relook at the definition of Scheduled Caste. Apart from Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, people of other religions have also demanded to be given scheduled caste status. The National Council of Dalit Christians (NCDC) has also filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking scheduled caste status for Dalit Christians. On August 30, the Supreme Court heard one such petition. The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Central Government in this matter and asked the government to give its stand by August 31, 2022.

According to Article 341 of the Indian Constitution, scheduled caste status can only be given to people following the Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist religions. The original order had only Hindus as SC but in 1956 it also classified Sikhs and Buddhists in 1990 as scheduled castes.

Website Headlines by Lallan top- “How is caste determined if a person changes his religion?” the report quoted Faizan Mustafa, former vice-chancellor of NALSAR Law University in Hyderabad and an Indian academic and legal expert, as saying, “Two kinds of issues have arisen. One issue is that if someone is SC/ST and converts, he will immediately lose his reservation benefit.  According to the presidential order of 1950, the scheduled cast has to be Hindu to get the benefit of reservation. Later, Buddhists and Sikhs were also added to it. The second aspect is related to the Supreme Court, whose decision says that on reconversion, a person will get his original cast.

Talking to Lallantop, Faizan Mustafa further said, “In today’s date, the religion-based reservation that is there is in the schedule cast. You are forcing people to remain Hindus. Dalits who are Christians are not being given reservations. At the same time, the scheduled tribe can also be Muslims or Hindus. But the scheduled cast can only be Hindus. “

According to media reports, the commission constituted by the central government will give its report within two years.

Conclusion:

It is clear from the analysis of DFRAC that Chhattisgarh CS has given no such order that the tribal, Christian who converts to any religion other than Hinduism, his caste certificate will be canceled or caste certificate will not be issued, so the claim being made by social media users is misleading.

Claimed Reviewed: Chhattisgarh CM gave the order to cancel the certificate of  tribals and Christians  who left Hinduism

Claimed By: Social Media Users

Fact check: Misleading.

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