Minutes after Supreme Court adjourned the hearing on Martha reservation by four weeks, pro-reservation organisations and opposition have slammed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government for not being serious on lifting the stay and thereby restore the 12% quota in education and 13% in government jobs under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018. Some pro-quota activists in Aurangabad-Paithan hit the roads and burnt tyres to express their anger.
Rajya Sabha MP Sambhaji Raje lashed out at the state government for lack of proper planning and coordination in the legal team. Sambhaji Raje said the state government should have made all efforts to vacate the stay. However, he added it did not happen.
On the other hand, BJP state president Chandrakant Patil claimed that the state government lacks seriousness in the restoration of Maratha quota. The leader of opposition in the state council shared Patil’s views and reminded Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s statement at the Dusserah rally that the government was making all efforts to get the stay vacated from the apex court.
The Maratha Kranti Morcha coordinator Vinod Patil, who is respondent in the case, said the students from the community are frustrated as the stay continues on the reservation. Patil also criticised that the state government should have been fully prepared but it was not serious during today’s hearing.
However, the Public Works Minister Ashok Chavan, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota said the state government has already requested the apex court to immediately set up a Constitution Bench to hear the application for cancellation of the interim stay on the implementation of the reservation. He further added that the government will make the same request once again.
Reacting to today's hearing in the Supreme Court, he said the state government had made a plea for transferring the Maratha quota to a larger bench to hear the petition seeking revocation of the interim stay. However, the case was today referred to a three-member bench.
‘’Many misconceptions have been created about today's Supreme Court hearing. State government lawyers were initially unable to attend the online hearing due to technical difficulties. Such technical difficulties occur almost every day during online court hearings, and the hearing of cases begins with a slight delay. The same thing happened today, said Chavan. According to him, the state counsel Mukul Rohatgi made an effective argument after the online hearing resumed when the three-member bench gave four weeks to hear the case.
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