india

Updated: Jul 12, 2019 23:21 IST

The Supreme Court barred the Maharashtra government on Friday from giving retrospective effect to a notification that grants reservation to the Maratha community in college seats and jobs, and issued notice to the state on an appeal challenging a Bombay high court order that upheld the quota policy.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi told counsel for the appellants and the state that the matter required a lengthy hearing. It, did not accept the petitioner’s plea to put the notification on hold.When it was pointed out that the state on Thursday night issued a directive to implement Maratha reservation retrospectively from 2014, the bench dictated its order to stop the government from doing so. The court made the notice returnable in two weeks.

Appeals have been filed against the HC order, which on June 27 upheld the constitutional validity of quotas for Marathas after accepting the government’s stand that the community was socially and educationally backward.

HC held that the 50% cap on total reservation imposed by the top court can be exceeded in exceptional circumstances. The Maratha community accounts for roughly a third of Maharashtra’s population and is politically dominant in the state.

HC agreed with the state that the latter was duty-bound to take steps for the community’s progress. Although the reservation was held to be valid, the court said the percentage of reservation was not valid and reduced it from 16% to 12% and 13%, as recommended by the State Backward Classes Commission. While upholding the reservation, the HC referred to the commission report to say its suggestions were based on quantifiable and contemporaneous data.

The bill for reservation was cleared by the state legislature on November 30, 2018.

The decision to apply the quota retrospectively goes back to a 2014 attempt to bring in the quota. Shortly before elections, the Congress-led government passed an ordinance to apply the reservation, but it was struck down by the High Court. By that time, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had come to power and it brought in a law to overturn the impact of the HC ruling. This law was stayed.

With the new law, the state sought to recruit those selected from the Maratha community during initial shortlisting that was done under the earlier legal processes.

According to Shivajirao Daund, secretary of state general administration department (GAD), the new law has provisions will make sure there is no impact on the recruitment process since 2014.

“Section 18 of the SEBC Act clearly states the repeal of the Educationally and Socially Backward Category (ESBC) shall not affect any appointment made, any selection process initiated, admission taken in any educational institutions, any right, privilege, obligation or liability acquired, accrued, or incurred under the act so repealed,” Daund said.

Before the SC, the petitioners argued that Maratha reservation breached the 50% ceiling set by the apex court for quotas in each state, and the HC overlooked certain fundamental and legal clauses.

A state does not have the authority or law to create a class like Maratha as a separate socially and educationally backward class, the petitioners said. To expand the ambit of reservation was not within the state’s authority but that of the Centre and such a quota will require a constitutional amendment, they argued.