MUMBAI: The state government on Monday through senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi made an oral plea before the bench of the Chief Justice of India S A Bobde for the urgent constitution of a larger, five-judge bench to hear the Maratha reservation matter and its plea to vacate the stay on the quota.
The CJI orally directed Rohatgi to make an appropriate application before the Supreme Court for it to consider the bench formation request.
The Bombay high court had last June upheld the validity of the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, but reduced the original 16% quota to 12% for education and 13% for public jobs.
State government advocate Sachin Patil within hours sent a new plea citing the "grave urgency" and sought that it be placed before the Chief Justice of India for the constitution of the larger bench.
The plea saiud that the September 9 stay on enforcement of the Maratha quota in education and state jobs had "affected ongoing admissions and recruitment processes in the entire state and thousands of students and candidates are suffering".
Cabinet minister and head of the cabinet-sub committee on Maratha reservations Ashok Chavan on Monday said: "This is a very positive development. We are hoping that a constitutional bench is set up and the matter is heard at the earliest."
He said there were some people who were trying to pit one community against another. "Maratha reservation will be given without touching the reservation that the OBC community already has," Chavan said.
The state had on October 21 written to the Supreme Court registry with a request to place its application for lifting of the stay granted on September 9 before a larger, five-judge bench as the appeal against the Bombay high court judgment which upheld the validity of the SEBC Act was referred to a constitutional bench. It had asked that its plea to vacate the stay be deleted from the three-judge bench where it was scheduled for a hearing on October 27.
On October 27, Rohatgi had appeared for the state government in the plea before a three-judge bench, which had adjourned it by four weeks and orally directed the state to seek steps for setting up of the larger bench for a hearing.
On October 28, the state made an urgent plea to the Supreme Court registry to place its plea before the Chief Justice of India for securing orders for the larger bench formation.