Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray to meet PM Narendra Modi today, major announcements likely

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (June 8) in the national capital. The chief minister will discuss the Maratha reservation issue with the Prime Minister. CM Thackeray arrived in Delhi in the morning and will meet the PM at 11 am.

A report in news agency ANI stated that CM Thackeray had last month written to PM Modi to take steps to declare the Maratha community in the state as Socially and Educationally Backward (SEBC) to enable them to claim the reservation in education and public employment at least to 12 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

"The Judgement delivered by the Constitution Bench (comprising of five Judges) of the Supreme Court on May 5, 2021, has given me this occasion to write to you with the earnest request that appropriate steps be taken at the earliest to grant reservation to the Maratha community from my State, albeit in accordance with the law, to the minimum extent of 12 per cent in Education and 13 per cent in Public Employment," the Maharashtra Chief Minister had written.

The Supreme Court had on May 5 struck down the reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the Maratha community brought in by the Maharashtra government in 2018, saying it exceeded the 50 per cent cap imposed earlier. 

A five-judge Constitution Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and Ravindra Bhat in its judgment said that that people from the Maratha community cannot be declared as educationally and socially backward community to bring them within the reserved category.