When the Supreme Court recently ruled that any person actively professing a religion outside Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism cannot simultaneously claim Scheduled Caste benefits, it did something important: it shifted the focus back to the people reservation was always meant for. But behind the legal clarity lies a quieter, more painful story—that of a Dalit student who lost a college seat, a landless labourer denied a government job, and a survivor of caste violence who couldn’t access protection under the SC/ST Atrocities Act. Not because they were found ineligible, but because someone else was occupying their space through a certificate that no longer reflected reality. This opinion piece is based on the Supreme Court’s March 24 ruling on Scheduled Castes status. (ANI) The numbers make the scale difficult to ignore. Maharashtra’s caste scrutiny committees cancelled over 14,000 fraudulent caste certificates between 2008 and 2017. In Andhra Pradesh, an RTI probe revealed that 70–80% of Christian pastors receiving COVID relief funds held Hindu SC or OBC certificates, despite having undergone baptism. These are not just administrative …