Supreme Court on Wednesday, ruled that there will be no reservations for the members of the Maratha community in education as well as in employment this year. The bench has also referred the batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra law granting quotas to the community members to a larger bench.
The bench headed by Justice L Nageshwar Rao stated that Chief Justice of India S A Bobde will decide on the matter as well the bench that is going to hear the matter.
The bench has also held that there will be no reservations for the Maratha community members in education and employment for the session 2020-2021. The court also stated that the admissions to postgraduate courses will not be altered.
The bench took the decision while hearing two pleas. One of the pleas was filed by J Laxman Rao Patil challenging the Bombay High Court order which upheld the constitutional validity of the quota for education and employment entitled to the members of the Maratha community.
On June 27, 2019, the Bombay High Court had observed that fifty percent cap on total reservations imposed by the apex court could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.
“6 percent reservation was not justifiable and added that the quota should not exceed 12 percent in employment and 13 percent in admissions to government-run educational institutes,” noted June 2019 order of Bombay High Court.
The second plea was filed by Advocate Sanjeet Shukla, a representative of ‘Youth for Equality’ stating, “The Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, enacted to grant reservation to the Maratha community people in jobs and education, breached the 50 percent ceiling on reservation fixed by the top court in its judgment in the Indira Sawhney case.”
