In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mayawati wrote: “I fully endorse the demand of the Council to amend para 3 of the Presidential Order, 1950, so as to give benefits to Scheduled Caste in Christians also.” Requesting the Prime Minister to “amend para 3 of Presidential Order suitably”, the letter also reminds that she had sent “a similar representation on August 2, 2005, to end this discrimination”.

The letter points out that this order was “amended in 1956 in favour of Sikh scheduled castes and subsequently in favour of Buddhist Scheduled Castes in 1990”.

The Supreme Court is also seized of a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation challenging the constitutional validity of para 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Orders, 1950, under which people belonging to the Scheduled Castes who converted to religions different from Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism were deprived of reservation benefits.

The apex court, which agreed to examine the question of providing reservation for Dalits even after their conversion to Christianity, remarked it as “a crucial issue” and even sought the views of Attorney-General Milon Banerjee on it. In his submissions, the A-G said he had written a letter in this regard and the Government had sent its reply. Though he had asked the Government to consider the issue sympathetically, he said it was “matter of policy and legislation and the Courts should keep out of it”.

He even recalled earlier apex court rulings holding that any amendment to the Presidential Order of 1950 regarding inclusion of any particular community within the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes was within the purview of legislative action. He brought to the notice of the court that the NDA Government had rejected a request for inclusion of Dalit Christians within the category of Scheduled Castes in 2002. The apex court had also ruled that the list of entries in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories under the Presidential Order was final and the courts could not “add or subtract”.