Bombay High Court missed core issues while upholding quota, plea to Supreme Court

Bombay High Court missed core issues while upholding quota, plea to Supreme Court

A day after the Maharashtra government notified its decision to amend the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) law reducing the percentage of quota to Marathas, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court.

Narsi BenwalUpdated: Saturday, July 06, 2019, 11:23 AM IST
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Mumbai: A day after the Maharashtra government notified its decision to amend the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) law reducing the percentage of quota to Marathas, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court. The petition challenges the verdict of the Bombay High Court by which it upheld the constitutional validity of the SEBC law which guarantees quota to Marathas in public service and education. The petition filed by advocate Sanjeet Shukla would be mentioned before a bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Monday.

The petitioner Shukla contends that the HC bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre misread the Indra Sawhney ruling of the apex court in which the top court had held that no state can exceed the 50 per cent limit while granting reservation to any community. “The HC misread that said rulings and concluded that no stringent ceiling limit of 50 per cent reservations has been prescribed by the Apex Court.

Further, in total ignorance of the relevant constitutional provisions, the HC also held that that 102nd Constitutional amendment does not curtail the powers of the Maharashtra government in granting reservation,” the petition reads. In his plea, Shukla has highlighted four glaring mistakes in the HC verdict. “The four key aspects to this case that the HC missed are - the Indra Sawhney ruling which prescribed a strict 50 per cent limit on reservations; the 102nd constitutional amendment which gives exclusive powers to the President to grant reservations," the plea states.

“The Maharashtra government has enacted the SEBC law under political pressure, completely disregarding the principles of equality and rule of law; the SEBC law violates the April 2015 orders of the HC which struck down the earlier decision of quota to Marathas," the plea adds. Shukla has further highlighted the fact that out of the total 17 Chief Ministers of Maharashtra since 1956, 12 were Marathas and 55 per cent of state assembly members till date are from this community.

"The Maratha community controls around 75-90 per cent of all land in the state. Nearly 54 per cent of the educational institutions in the state are controlled by Marathas. Also, qound 75 per cent of the persons managing the state universities are Marathas and 86 out of the total 105 sugar factories are controller by Marathas," the petition highlights. The plea further argued that the Maharashtra government has made a mockery of the rule of law. It has also used its constitutional powers "arbitrarily and purely for political gains."

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