"Why don't you find out the policy of the government on the issue and let us know?" a bench of Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan said while directing the Centre to file its response.
The Bench said since it has to be a policy decision, it was for the government to come out with its stand as the courts have a limited role in the matter.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said a similar petition seeking SC, Scheduled Tribes status for certain class of persons within the Christian community was pending before another bench and sought six weeks time to file the reply.
The apex court passed the directions on a public interest litigation filed by a non-governmental organisation in 2008 contending that Muslim Dalits, like Hindu khatiks, are engaged in the profession of slaughtering goats and have not been given SC status.
It was contended that originally, both sets of khatiks were the same community and there was documentary proof to the effect that the Muslim khatiks are local converts but they are not guaranteed SC status like their Hindu counterparts, the PIL filed by Akhil Maharashtra Muslim Khatik Samaj said.
Counsel Mushtaq Ahmad said the samaj was seeking parity-based constitutional relief for Muslim counterparts of the Hindu SCs on the ground that the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, is unconstitutional as it is religion-based.
The petition said the Justice Rajinder Sachar Committee and the National Commission for the Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by former Chief Justice Rangnath Mishra have recommended delinking religion from the issue of Scheduled Castes.
Further, there was a report that the National Commission for Scheduled Castes has also favoured delinking religion from the issue.
The PIL said there was a need to identify and include Muslim Arzals or Muslim Dalits like khatiks, mehters, bhangis, lalbegis, halakhors, mochis, mukris and garudis in the category of SCs.
