Maratha quota challenged in Bombay High Court

Manoj Jarange Patil has been spearheading the Maratha reservation issue. File pic

The latest law that gave the Marathas a 10 per cent independent quota in jobs and education has been challenged in the Bombay High Court. The state government had legislated the provision in a special one-day session on February 20. A special category of socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) was created on the lines of similar laws passed in 2014 and 2018. Both laws did not pass legal scrutiny.

Petitioners Advocate Jayashri Patil and her husband and counsel in this case, Gunaratna Sadavarte, said that the state government did not have the right to create an independent category SEBC for reservation. He said the total reservation in Maharashtra has now become 72 per cent which was a violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.

Gunaratna Sadavarte, lawyer and one of the petitioners

"We have urged the court to scrap the law. The government has not understood jurisprudence of reservations in the country," Sadavarte told mediapersons on Friday, adding that he has also challenged a notification to give Marathas a certificate of the Kunbi caste. He said he has asked the court to scrap the unconstitutional formation of various committees and appointment of the chairman of the state backward class commission.

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According to him, the Maratha community isn't socially backward. "We will prove in court that the Marathas are not socially backward. Only the Constitution will be upheld," he said, adding that the reservation had become majoritarian in Maharashtra and detrimental to those in the general (open) category.

Caveat filed

Vinod Patil, a senior Maratha activist who has been party to the previous cases, had filed a caveat two days ago. The HC will give Vinod Patil an opportunity to present his side whenever it takes up the petition filed by Jayashri Patil. In the 2018 act, the Bombay High Court had held the quota valid, but suggested a cut. The approval was challenged in the apex court, which ruled against the HC in 2021. The Shinde-Fadnavis government worked on the law once again following an intensified agitation by Marathas, who have been led in recent times by Manoj Jarange Patil.