State govt shows deadlines can be met

Law granting Marathas 16% quota was ratified on Friday evening; activists ask for review

Even as the demand for Maratha quota continues to gather opponents, in a super efficient move, the state enforced the law, allowing a 16 per cent reservation for them. This has been made applicable from Saturday itself.

Expediting law-making, its endorsement and notification started in the second half of the week. The governor ratified the law on Friday evening, a day after the state legislature approved the bill without debating it. Following the ratification, the administration wasted no time in publishing the law in the state gazette by midnight the same day. The official notification means that the law has come into effect from December 1, a deadline that CM Devendra Fadnavis had set for the entire process, which took just 14 days.

The State Backward Class Commission had submitted its report on November 15, four days before the winter session of the legislature began. The legislature demanded the tabling of the reports but the government refused and tabled the action taken report and the bill within an hour on Thursday and got it approved the same day. The government is confident that the quota, beyond the permissible ceiling of 50 per cent, will pass legal scrutiny if challenged in the court. Some activists and caste groups have said that they would ask the court to review the new law. Considering such moves, a Maratha activist Vinod Patil has filed a caveat in the high court.

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