Mumbai: After dilly-dallying for three months, the Maharashtra government finally distributed the copies of annexures to all parties on Monday. These form a vital part of the main report of the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC), which had recommended 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community. This comes after the division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre, last week, said no one could stop the petitioners challenging and supporting the Maratha quota, from accessing the annexures.
At its previous hearing, the government claimed that the annexures were ‘voluminous’ and scanning them to provide copies to all the parties would take time. The government had then offered to allow petitioners to visit Mantralaya and read the annexures. On Monday, however, the government said that it was ready to hand over copies of the annexures to all the parties. Accordingly, it did so, providing the information on pendrives.
The bench was seized with a bunch of petitions challenging the decision of the government to provide 16 per cent reservation to Marathas in public service and government-run educational institutions. The matter has been posted for hearing final arguments in the case on February 6.
