The ongoing legal battle for continuation of reservation in education and jobs to the politically influential Maratha community in Maharashtra on Tuesday took a new turn after the Maratha Kranti Morcha coordinator Vinod Patil filed an application urging the Supreme Court to club all pending petitions pertaining to quota pending for adjudication. Apart of the petition challenging the reservation to Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, the Supreme Court has to give a ruling on the petition challenging the quota for the Economically Weaker Section and also petitions challenging the reservations introduced by the Andhra Pradesh and TamilNadu governments in the past.
Patil, who is the respondent in the petitions against Maratha quota, said there is a common thread in these petitions that reservations have been provided in excess of 50% quota norm or the cardinal embargo of 50% as laid down in Indra Sawhney vs Union of India case. ''It can be clearly seen that, wherever a statute pertaining to the reservation has been challenged and is a subject matter of proceedings before this Hon Court. The outcome of any of the proceedings would have an overlapping effect on the other. In a given case the same would either cause prejudice or may benefit either of the parties, which would depend on the respective interest of the concerned litigating party,'' he added.
According to Patil, the possibility of overlapping or contrary judgements cannot be ruled out. '' Hence the present application has been moved for clubbing of all the matters together for effective final hearing and adjudication of the list in the larger public interest,'' he noted.
Patil's move comes when the Supreme Court on August 7 had postponed the hearing on Maratha quota petitions on September 1 while on August 25 it will hear the application of transferring the petitions to the Constitution Bench.
