The Bombay High Court upheld the Constitutional validity of the reservation law but reduced the quota to 12 per cent in education and 13 per cent in jobs. (Representational/File)In a bid to resolve the stalled Maratha reservation issue, the Maharashtra government on Tuesday appointed a Cabinet sub-committee headed by the state’s Higher and Technical Education Minister Chandrakant Patil to undertake legal steps to bring back reservation for the community.
In May 2021, the Supreme Court had struck down the provisions under law to provide reservation to the Maratha community.
The committee comprises Revenue Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, Rural Development Minister Girish Mahajan, Ports Minister Dada Bhuse, State Excise Minister Shambhuraj Desai and Industries Minister Uday Samant. The committee will work on legal steps to be taken based on the state Backward Class Commission report.
In June 2017, the then Devendra Fadnavis government had constituted the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) headed by Justice (retired) M G Gaikwad to study the social, financial and educational status of the Maratha community. The Commission submitted its report in November 2018, classifying Marathas as a socially and educationally backward class (SEBC). The same month, the Maharashtra Assembly unanimously passed a Bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for Marathas.
The Bombay High Court upheld the Constitutional validity of the reservation law but reduced the quota to 12 per cent in education and 13 per cent in jobs. In the Supreme Court, the matter was referred to a five-member Constitution bench, which unanimously agreed that there was no need to revisit the 1992 Indira Sawhney judgment that had fixed the total reservation limit at 50 per cent, and unanimously struck down the state law granting reservation to the Marathas.