Institutes that surveyed Marathas lacked expertise: HC told

The petitioners opposing reservation for Marathas, Friday told the Bombay High Court that the five institutes, whose survey report formed the basis for granting quota to the community, did not possess the requisite technical expertise to carry out the survey.

The submission was made before a bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre by advocate Pradeep Sancheti, the lawyer for Sanjeet Shukla, one of the petitioners in the case.

As per the state's records, five institutes- Gokhale Institute, Rambhau Mhalgi Probodhini, Shivaji Academy, Sharda Academy and Gurukrupa Sanstha- were assigned the task of conducting the survey on the educational and economic backwardness of Maratha community in western Maharashtra, Konkan, Marathwada, Vidarbha and north Maharashtra.

However, advocate Sancheti Friday argued that the government had not conducted proper background checks on these institutes before assigning the task to them.

"None of these institutes had any prior experience of conducting a large-scale and important survey. Besides, three of these five institutes have political affiliations. Therefore, how could their survey reports have been relied upon by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission?" Sancheti argued.

His arguments, however, were vehemently opposed by the state's counsel V M Thorat, who cautioned Sancheti and other petitioners against making such insinuations.

"Are the petitioners suggesting that the Commission was biased? On what basis can they make such insinuations?" he said.

The bench has been hearing a bunch of petitions in favour of and against the state's decision to grant the Marathas in the state a 16 percent quota.

The quota was granted following a recommendation of the State Backward Class Commission.

On November 30, 2018, the Maharashtra legislature passed the bill giving 16 per cent quota to the Marathas following an intense agitation by the community.

The high court will continue hearing arguments in the matter on Monday.