Maharashtra govt faces legal challenge in HC over quota for Marathas

Govt plans to present valid documents at Bombay High Court to strengthen its argument

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government faces a legal challenge in defending the Act notified in March 2015 for a 16 per cent quota in jobs and education entry  to the Maratha community.

The next hearing on the petition in this regard is slated for the coming Thursday in the high court (HC) here. The interim stay on the Act’s implementation, granted by the HC in April 2015, continues.  The community, which has already organised 21 protest marches in the state, has planned two massive protests, at Kolhapur on the coming Saturday and Thane on Sunday. And, a concluding march in Mumbai after Diwali.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reiterated his government’s commitment for the quota to Marathas, a third of the state's population. Community groups, such as the Maratha Kranti Morcha, want the announcement to be backed with action, including in the court.

Given the issue’s political importance, Fadnavis had a meeting with opposition parties 10 days earlier, to explain the government's strategy. He’d assured that a battery of leading lawyers would argue for the government's stance in the HC.

Senior minister Chandrakant Patil, who moved the Maratha reservation resolution at the party's state executive meeting last week, said the resolution made it clear that the 16 per cent quota would not be included within the one for Other Backward Classes. The government will urge the Supreme Court to consider allowing quotas in Maharashtra to exceed 51 per cent. The SC cap is 50 per cent in any state but is 69 per cent in Tamil Nadu, a point Patil noted.

Opposition parties use the fact to make their point. Former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar at his party's rally in western Maharashtra on Sunday alleged the Fadnavis government lacked political will. ''If Tamil Nadu could do it, what has stopped Maharashtra?” he demanded.

A government official referred to the HC’s observation while giving an interim stay. It had said the SC has ruled that reservations states cannot exceed 50 per cent, except in extraordinary circumstances for which justification has to be made. Already, there is 52 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for various backward groups in the state. The previous Congress-NCP government had, ahead of the assembly election in October 2014, raised it to 73 per cent by announcing the 16 per cent quota for Marathas and five per cent for Muslims.

Further, the HC had observed that  the Second Backward Classes Commission Report (Mandal report, 1990), National Commission for Backward Classes report of February 2000, and the report of the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission (Bapat report of July 2008) had held that the Maratha community could not be termed backward. In fact, the court had said, the reports concluded the Maratha community was a "socially advanced and prestigious community".
 

Long drawn out legal battle ahead

* Govt to field leading lawyers to argue its stance on providing 16% reservation in jobs and education to Maratha community

* Already 52% quota in government jobs and educational institutions given for various backward groups

* Will have to convince how the Maratha community can be termed backward

* Opposition and community organisations ask why Tamil Nadu model, where reservation works upto 69%, can't be applied in Maharashtra