NGO Youth For Equality terms SC verdict on Maratha quota 'historic'

    New Delhi, May 6 (PTI) Youth For Equality (YFE), an NGO and a petitioner in the Maratha reservation case, on Thursday described as "historic" the Supreme Court's judgment striking down quota for the community in admissions and government jobs in Maharashtra, and said it would help the "real backwards" for whom affirmative actions have been planned in the Constitution.
    Terming the Marathas descendants of "self-respecting warrior class", the NGO said members of the community should themselves have opposed the idea of "labelling them backwards".
    However, it admitted that like any other large community, some Marathas are poor and they deserve protection of affirmative action, and that the newly introduced reservation for Economically Weaker Section will take care of them.
    In a significant judgement, the apex court on Wednesday refused to refer to a larger bench to revisit its 29-year-old Mandal verdict putting cap on quotas at 50 per cent as it quashed a Maharashtra law granting reservations to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state, saying it violated the principle of right to equality.
    It said that the Maratha community is in the mainstream of national life and it is not disputed that they are a politically dominant caste.
    Marathas are adequately and satisfactorily represented in public services and their representation in Grade A, B, C, and D categories comes to an average of over 30 per cent in open category posts, the top court observed.
    Advocate Sanjeet Shukla, a representative of YFE, in a statement, said, "By excluding the Marathas from the list of backwards, the apex court has truly helped the real backwards for whom affirmative actions have been planned in the constitution. 'Youth For Equality' is also fighting reservation cases in other states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and this judgement will help in our fight."
    "They (Marathas) are the rulers, traders, land owners and 'anna-data' (food providers, for not only Maharashtra but the whole of India. The Marathas have given direction to Indian history repeatedly. The Marathas are the pride of the nation. The Maratha community should not fall for this politically motivated ploy," said YFE founder Kaushal Kant Mishra.
    A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan on Wednesday unanimously held, "The Act, 2018 (Maharashtra Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018) violates the principle of equality as enshrined in Article 16. The exceeding of the ceiling limit without there being any exceptional circumstances clearly violates Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution which makes the enactment ultra vires".
    Justice Bhushan, who wrote a separate 411-page verdict for himself and Justice SA Nazeer said, "We thus conclude that the Act, 2018 as amended in 2019, granting separate reservation for Maratha community has not made out any exceptional circumstances to exceed the ceiling of 50 per cent reservation".
    The bench, however, unanimously upheld the validity of 102nd Constitutional amendment but in 3:2 verdict held that enactment has taken away the power of states to identify Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC). PTI MG NSD
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)