Maratha quota: SC dismisses plea on quota, says Bombay HC can be approached

Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea alleging that petitions challenging Maharashtra government's decision to grant 16% quota to Marathas in jobs and education in the state were still pending adjudication.

A bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and A M Khanwilkar, however, allowed the petitioner to approach the Bombay High Court for "expeditious" hearing of the case.

"We see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed. We leave it to the petitioner to approach the High Court for an expeditious hearing of the matter, in which event, we expect the High Court to consider the prayer sympathetically," the bench said.

The order came on a plea filed by one Vinod Narayan Patil seeking urgent hearing of his plea citing "urgency" as the Bombay High Court, which stayed the order granting quota on November 14, 2014, has not even fixed the matters for final hearing and adjudication despite an order from the apex court.

The High Court, in an interim order, had stayed the decision after faulting the data used by the state to back its assertion that the Maratha community was backward. It had also put on hold the 5 per cent quota in public employment under a special backward class category to about 50 sub-castes among Muslims.

The High Court had not disturbed a similar benefit for backward Muslims in state-owned or aided educational institutions. The decision to grant reservation to Marathas and Muslims was taken by the erstwhile Congress-NCP government before the 2014 assembly elections.