In an interim order, the Supreme Court on Wednesday, 9 September, said that the Maratha quota will not apply in jobs and college admissions this year, while referring the matter to the Chief Justice of India, with a view to constitute a large bench for further hearing.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the implementation of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act 2018.
The Act provides reservation in education and employment to the Maratha community.
Delivering the verdict, a three-judge bench of justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat said that while the Maratha quota cannot be applied to admissions this year, admissions already made to post-graduate courses this year will not be affected by the decision.
The decision of the apex court was based on a petition filed by a non-profit organisation named Youth for Equality, which had argued that Maratha quota was in violation of the 50 percent cap on reservation fixed by the Supreme Court in its landmark Mandal judgment.
The bench ruled that while no appointments and admissions based on the quota will be made for 2020-21, the postgraduate admissions taken place already will not be altered.
The parties involved in the matter had contended before the bench to refer it to an 11-judge bench, to see whether there could be a breach in the the 50 per cent cap on reservation.
The petitioners challenged the Bombay High Court judgement passed in June 2019. They contended that the Act, which provides for 12 per cent and 13 per cent quota to Maratha community in education and jobs, violates the principle laid in the 9-judge bench judgement of the apex court in 1992, which capped the reservation at 50 per cent.
The Background
- In 2018, the Maharashtra Assembly had passed the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, providing 16 percent reservation for Marathas in government jobs an education.
- The quota was challenged in the Bombay High Court, which upheld the constitutional validity of the law in 2019, but reduced the quota to 12 percent in education and 13 percent in government jobs.
- Unsatisfied with the Bombay HC order, Youth for Equality appealed against the order in the Supreme Court.
(With inputs from IANS.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)