Less than a week after the Maharashtra government announced 16 per cent reservation, in education and jobs for the Maratha community, Mumbai-based advocate Gunratan Sadavarte on Monday challenged the state's decision in the Bombay High Court. The plea is the first to be filed in the HC against quota for Marathas.
Challenging the Maratha Reservation Act is a bitter pill that no political party or even conflicting interest groups are willing to swallow. Hence, it took an individual litigant to admit the petition challenging the reservation awarded to the Maratha community.
Sadavarte has raised two points challenging the quota under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class category. He has relied on SC rulings that have capped the reservations to a maximum of 50 per cent. He termed the Maratha quota unconstitutional. He said, "It is to be based on social backwardness and not merely because of economical backwardness."
The petitioner has requested the court to stay the law granting reservation for Marathas and after the hearing, finally strike down the same.
On Monday, the State of Maharashtra moved the Supreme Court, filing a caveat seeking to inform the court to hear them before passing any order regarding Maratha reservation. Maratha Kranti Morcha convenor Vinod Patil too had filed a caveat in the SC and the Bombay HC, pleading that he should be given a chance to put up his argument before giving any judgement on a petition challenging the Maratha reservation act.
Legal experts opine that the State government and Maratha interest groups like Maratha Kranti Morcha had already foreseen that the quota will be challenged in the courts. Hence, both of them have filed caveats in the HC and SC. This enables them to become default defendants in the event of anyone challenging the reservation in the court.
Meanwhile, Education Minister and BJP leader Vinod Tawde has said that noted jurist and former Solicitor General Harish Salve will defend the Maharashtra government in the court. He added that as a precautionary measure caveat has filed in Bombay High Court and its divisional benches in Nagpur and Aurangabad respectively.
BJP chief whip in the state assembly Raj Purohit said the Act has been unanimously passed by the State Legislature and the Governor has given his consent. ''It is legally sound and full proof. We are not afraid of any one approaching the court against it. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has already clarified that it will stand the test of law,'' he noted.
However, the Opposition (Congress and Nationalist Congress Party) has said it is the sole responsibility of Fadnavis to ensure that the Act passes the legal scrutiny.