Imagine a family in a village in Tamil Nadu or Punjab. For generations they were treated as untouchable, denied entry to the temple, made to sit apart at the village well. Two generations ago, an ancestor converted to Christianity, hoping conversion would end the humiliation. It did not — the neighbours still will not share a meal, the same discriminatory customs persist, the same social boycott follows any assertion of dignity. Yet when this family's children apply for a government job or a college seat under the Scheduled Caste quota, their caste certificate is refused. The law, as it stands, says Scheduled Caste status is available only to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists — not to Christians or Muslims, however identical their lived experience of caste oppression. This is the precise human problem that the Supreme Court has now had to confront.