Mumbai: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government said its reason for giving reservation to Marathas was not ‘political’, it seemed to have done a U-turn on Thursday.
In a political submission, the government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that it was only correcting the ‘mistakes’ of previous governments. This submission comes after a bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre sought to know why the Marathas suddenly started agitating and demanding reservation only in the recent past.
Justice Dangre, while referring to the report of Mandal Commission, submitted in 1980, said, “There was no such demand even after Mandal Commission submitted its report. Also there was no violence or agitation for reservations.” “We want to know as to what are the changes in circumstances, now, that the government promptly sought data on the condition of the Maratha community?” Justice Dangre asked.
To this, senior counsel Vijaysingh Thorat, hastily said the Marathas have realised now that their community was being neglected.“The present government is correcting the mistakes of the past governments,” Thorat remarked.“The previous government, which were voted by the Marathas, made the community think and live under the perception that they were forward.
But now, with the passing of time the community has started feeling it is backward and needs protection,” Thorat further submitted. According to Thorat, the findings of the Mandal Commission on the social and educational backwardness of various communities, were valid only for two decades.
“Thus, it was only in 2014 that the state government felt the need to get quantifiable data on the conditions of the Marathas. And that is the reason for constituting the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC),” the former Advocate General of Maharashtra, Thorat, submitted.
Thorat further said the SBCC was set up only because the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) did not carry out any survey in Maharashtra before the finding that the Marathas were ‘forward.’ Further, Thorat informed the bench that the government can include other communities in the Social and Educational Backward Classes (SEBC) category, which is given 16 per cent reservation in public service and education.
During the course of the hearing, Thorat also submitted that courts cannot inquire into or examine the procedure followed by the government to formulate an act. The bench will continue hearing the final arguments in these bunch of petitions challenging the 16 per cent quota to Marathas, on Monday.
