The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the Maharashtra government's decision to provide reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions. However, it has ordered the Maharashtra government to bring down the Maratha quota percentage from 16 per cent to 12 or 13 per cent, saying that it was not "justifiable".
The verdict was passed by a division bench comprising Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre. Several petitions were filed in the high court challenging the reservation, while a few others were filed in support of the quota.
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On November 30 last year, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill proposing 16 per cent reservation in education and government jobs for the Marathas under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category.
On February 6, the same division bench had commenced hearing in all the petitions. In April this year, the court closed the petitions for verdict.
The government, while defending its decision, had said reservation was only to bring up the Maratha community which was neglected since long.
The petitioners challenging the quota decision, however, claimed by granting reservation to the Maratha community, the government has given them permanent crutches which they will never be able to shed. The government has destroyed the concept of equality by setting up a special category—Socially and Educationally Backward Class—for the Maratha community, the petitioners argued.
They also claimed that as per the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission report, Marathas and Kunbis are one and the same caste and hence, should be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.
(With PTI unputs)
