Bombay High Court likely to give verdict on 16% Maratha quota today; petitioners say move 'destroys concept of equality'

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday is expected to announce its judgment on a bunch of petitions challenging the Maharashtra government’s decision to grant 16 percent quota to Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions. [caption id=“attachment_5162561” align=“alignleft” width=“385”]  File image of Maratha protesters. PTI[/caption] On 30 November last year, the Maharashtra legislature passed a bill proposing 16 percent reservation in education and government jobs for the Marathas under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) category. Several petitions were filed in the high court challenging the reservation, while a few others were filed in support of the quota. On 6 February, a division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre commenced hearing in all the petitions. In April this year, the court closed the petitions for the verdict. The government, while defending its decision, had said reservation was only to bring up the Maratha community, which was neglected since long. The petitioners challenging the quota decision, however, claimed by granting reservation to the Maratha community, the government has given them permanent crutches which they will never be able to shed. The government has destroyed the concept of equality by setting up a special category, SEBC, for the Maratha community, the petitioners argued. They also claimed that as per the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission report, Marathas and Kunbis are one and the same caste and hence, should be included in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category.