Mumbai: While crafting a separate category for the Maratha community, the Maharashtra government has from day one maintained that it cannot ‘disturb’ the reservations already given to the Other Backward Classes (OBCs). The Bombay High Court, however, has concluded that ‘revisiting’ the OBC list would be the only solution to resolve all issues pertaining to reservations. A bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre, in its unprecedented judgment upholding reservation to Marathas, has said that the Constitution itself empowers the state to revisit the OBC list and phase out communities which have already progressed.
The judges said that the reservation policy was never considered as a permanent solution to remove the disparity which was historically traced amongst different classes. “The Constitution expects the state government to revise the list of OBCs and even empowers it to remove those classes which have progressed,’’ the judges have said. “This, according to us, is the only solution which would avoid a situation which the state faced in granting reservation to the Marathas. We have noted that the said list has been subjected to amendment from time to time and various castes or communities have been included but deletion from this list is a rare phenomenon,” Justice More remarked. The judges further said that the courts have no expertise in determining which community or caste is socially or educationally or economically backward. They further said that the duty which is assigned to the courts is only to examine the decision of the government granting reservations.
“We hope and trust that the state government would discharge the duty cast on it by the Maharashtra State Backward Classes Commission (MSBCC) Act of 2005 and bring the reservation conferred on the OBCs as well as the SEBC (Marathas) within the ceiling limit of 50 per cent,” the judgment penned down by Justice More, reads. Justice More further said, “We hope and trust that the said situation would be reviewed by the State in the near future, so that it follows the rule of caution and does not forever continue with this exceptional circumstances and extraordinary situation.” In its 487-page judgment, the judges have also referred to a poem quoted in Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s autobiography, which reads, “Bowed by the weight of centuries, he leans upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, the emptiness of ages in his face and on his back, the burden of the world.”
