HC to hear in February pleas challenging Maratha reservation

The Bombay High Court today said it would commence in February 2017 the final hearing on a bunch of petitions challenging Maharashtra government's decision to grant 16 per cent reservation to the Marathas.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice M S Sonak said that on January 30, it would fix a date in February when the petitions would be heard and decided.
The state government had two days back filed a 2,500-page affidavit in support of its decision to grant reservation to the community in government jobs and educational institutions across the state.
The government, in its affidavit, said that 80 per cent Marathas were socially and economically backward.

The government sought vacation of the stay granted by the High Court on implementation of the decision so that it can go ahead with it.
The petitions opposed the then Congress-NCP government's 2014 decision to grant 16 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to the Maratha community.
The state government affidavit includes four reports prepared by Pune-based Gokhale Institute, on various segments of the community including sugarcane cutters and migrant labourers, head loaders, maid servants to back the claim about their socio-economic backwardness.