Devendra Fadnavis welcomes Bombay HC judgment on Maratha quota; Congress leader says credit to agitators

Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday welcomed the Bombay High Court’s order giving 12 percent and 13 percent reservation to Maratha community in educational institutions and government jobs respectively. “The order of the high court proved that this Maharashtra Legislative Assembly is capable of devising a law. The court has also accepted the report of the Backward Class Commission,” the chief minister said in the Legislative Assembly. Senior Congress leader and MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said that the government should not take credit for the reservation. “The credit must go to the marches carried out by the people of the community,” Wadettiwar added. [caption id=“attachment_5282291” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. PTI[/caption] Echoing similar sentiments, Maharashtra Congress legislator said, “We have demanded the reservation for the Muslim community. Several marches were carried out by the Maratha community and I am sure this judgment will give some relief to them.” Earlier in the day, the Bombay High Court upheld the reservation given to the Maratha community in educational institutions and government jobs. A bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharti Dangre, however, did not approve the quota of 16 percent extended to the community. The court has directed to cap the reservation at 12 percent for admission to educational institutions and 13 percent in the government jobs. The Maharashtra Assembly had, on 30 November, 2018, passed the Maratha Reservation Bill, which extended 16 percent reservation in educational institutions and government jobs to the Maratha community. Following the decision of the state legislature, several petitions were filed contending that the reservation to the community will raise the reservation in the state from 52 per cent to 68 percent, which is 18 per cent higher than the ceiling set by the Supreme Court. On this, the high court said that the 50 percent cap on the reservation can be “extended in exceptional situations.” The court also upheld the recommendations made by the Maharashtra Backward Class Commission about the “backwardness” of the community, which the government had considered while extending the quota. The Maratha community, which has been declared as a socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) by the state government, makes up a total of 33 percent of the total population in the state. The Legislative Council of the state had, on 21 June, passed an amendment in the SEBC Act, providing 16 percent reservation to the students of Maratha community in admissions to the post-graduate (PG) courses in medical colleges.