On June 27, Bombay High Court had approved the Maharashtra State Reservation – applicable for admission in educational institutions and for appointments in public service posts – for Socially and Educationally Backward Category (SEBC) Act, 2018.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday allowed the Maharashtra government to go ahead with reservations for Marathas in state jobs and admissions, as allowed by the Bombay High Court in June this year. However, it imposed restrictions on extending benefits of this law to appointments/admissions prior to the date the law came into force.
On June 27, Bombay High Court had approved the Maharashtra State Reservation – applicable for admission in educational institutions and for appointments in public service posts – for Socially and Educationally Backward Category (SEBC) Act, 2018. This was cleared by the State Assembly on November 30, 2018. The top court, however, reduced the quota from the prescribed 16% to 12 per cent in admissions and 13% in jobs.
Upset over the loss, several petitioners appealed to the SC and the apex bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose agreed to examine the legal questions raised in their petition. The disgruntled lot claimed that the HC judgment approves breach of the 50% ceiling on reservation imposed by SC in the 1992 Indra Sawhney case, popularly called the Mandal case. Senior advocate Gopal Shankarnaraynan, appearing for the NGO Youth for Equality, sought stay of the HC order.
He cited news reports indicating that the Centre's July 11 order extended benefits of reservation to appointments made way back in 2014 under a similar law enacted soon after the Devendra Fadnavis government came to power that year. The same was stayed by the HC in April 2015, following which a fresh exercise was undertaken.
"We are not staying the HC order," said the Bench and issued notice to the state government, "The reservation so ordered by the High Court will have no retrospective effect." The Court further indicated that all reservations made pursuant to the High Court order shall be subject to the outcome of the appeals pending with the apex court.
Vinod Tawde, Maharashtra's minister of higher and technical education clarified that the government was not implementing the quota for the Maratha community with retrospective effect. He also said that erroneous information about SC's judgment was being circulated. "The Supreme Court has not stayed the Bombay High Court order upholding the SEBC Act. There is no stay on the recruitment or admission process," he clarified.
A senior bureaucrat informed that the State had issued a notification on Thursday to protect the recruitment of Maratha candidates or the pending recruitment process initiated under the Educationally and Socially Backward Class (ESBC) category between July 9, 2014 and November 11, 2014. This was done as per the Bombay HC's order dated June 27 upholding the SEBC Act. Further, the admission process for post graduate medical and dental students has been completed and that for undergraduate medical students is currently underway as per the amendment to the SEBC Act 2018. Neither has been implemented with retrospective effect.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for a petitioner, sought urgent hearing on interim relief claiming that the reservation has exceeded 50% mark and reached 62%. "It is not humanly possible for us to go through the HC judgment now," the Bench said. Divan then requested for an early date following; the Court listed his petition after two weeks.
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