Maharashtra flip-flop on higher education admission process under Maratha quota

PUNE: The Maharashtra government issued a notification on Friday asking the higher education institutes to undo the entire admission process because of the Supreme Court’s interim order on Maratha quota, only to retract it a day after.
Based on the first notification of the state government, Dhanraj Mane, the director of higher education, issued a letter on September 11 to all vice-chancellors, principals and joint directors. HIs letter was based on the notification issued by the state government to the directors of higher education, technical education, art education as well as vice-chancellors, mentioning that all higher educational institutes in the state had been asked to roll back admissions given under the Maratha reservation quota, as per the Supreme Court’s interim order on September 9.
The fresh notification issued late on Saturday said the previous notification stood cancelled. “The important notification in this subject will be issued by the government in due course,” it said.
Purportedly quoting the interim order of the Supreme Court, the first notification stated, “Admission to educational institutes for the academic year 2020-21 shall be made without reference to reservations provided in the (SEBC) Act. We make it clear that the admissions made to postgraduate medical courses shall not be altered.”
The state notification further stated that the department of law and justice had given the following suggestion based on the order: “In case Maratha reservation is already applied for the admission for the academic year 2020-21, then the colleges/educational institutes will have to undo the process and provide admissions for the academic year 2020-21 as if the SEBC Act is not in force. There is no restraint for the continuation of the admission process, but it must be without applying the provisions of SEBC Act, that is Maratha reservation.”
However, through its interim order, the Supreme Court had made it clear that the status of those who availed of the benefits of reservation would not be affected.
Calls and messages to Mane went unanswered. Uday Samant, the minister of higher and technical education, too, remained unavailable for comment.