Supreme Court on Maratha reservation today: Interim order on petitions challenging quota on 15 July

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear and pass interim orders on petitioners challenging Maratha reservation next Wednesday, on   15 July, reports have said _._

The Supreme Court bench, led by Justice L Nageswara Rao, initially had said that the court will hear the pleas on a “day-to-day basis” from next month but later relented to lawyers’ apprehensions that a virtual court hearing will not be able to encompass the complicated matter at hand.

The petitioners challenging Maratha reservation said that the matter could not be adjudicated through virtual hearing. They demanded a physical hearing.

J Rao requests counsels to not press for an immediate date. "A five judge bench cannot sit now, " observes court.

Case now posted to next Wednesday for interim orders.

— Bar & Bench (@barandbench) July 7, 2020

The petitioners were challenging the Bombay High Court’s decision to uphold the law by which the Maratha community would get  reservation in education and jobs in Maharashtra.

The plea said the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act , which provided a 12 percent and a 13 percent quota to the Maratha community in education and jobs respectively, breached the 50 percent ceiling on reservation fixed by the apex court in its landmark judgment in the  Indira Sawhney case , also known as the “Mandal verdict”.

On Monday, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had said that the Maharashtra government must “go fully prepared” for the Supreme Court hearing on the move to provide reservations in education and jobs to the Maratha community. He further added that the BJP “will provide full support”.

With inputs from agencies