Maratha quota scrapped: Fight for merit prevails, say students, parents

The Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to quash reservations for students from Maratha community in educational institutes has been hailed by students seeking admissions to professional courses and their parents

The Supreme Court’s (SC) decision to quash reservations for students from Maratha community in educational institutes has been hailed by students seeking admissions to professional courses and their parents.

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Dr Uday Dhoble, one of the petitioners in the case that was heard in the Apex court, said, “Along with other parents of medical aspirants, we had filed a case challenging the government rule of reservations exceeding 50%. We have nothing against the Marathas. Our contention was that if more than 50% seats are reserved, open category students will be forced to be admitted in private and deemed universities. The biggest impact of the reservations was on medical students.”

“It’s a winning moment for all of us in open category. Finally merit prevails. The fight that we at Team Mumbai began at the Bombay high court (HC) in December of 2018 finally succeeded at the Supreme Court (SC) today. We are not against any caste or religion, but are against reservation going beyond 50%. Let everyone get it on economic grounds within the stipulated 50%,” said education activist and parent Sudha Shenoy, who is a part of Save Merit, Save Nation group. Shenoy is a part of a group of medical aspirants and parents protesting the 12% reservation of seats for Maratha category students.

Those seeking admission to other professional courses, too, have been against the Maratha reservations. They had filed public interest litigations challenging the Maratha reservation in HC and SC.

In September last year, SC had stayed all recruitment and admissions in education institutes under the socially and economically backward classes (SEBC) quota for the 2020-21 academic year, with exception to postgraduate medical admissions. On September 21, Maharastra government had filed a petition in the Apex court to vacate the stay on admissions. The court, however, had adjourned the hearing by four weeks. On November 24, the state released a government resolution clarifying that all admissions, for that time being, would be conducted without the inclusion of the quota, until there’s clarity from SC on the matter.

In line with SC’s interim stay on the Maratha quota in jobs and education, the state education department had stayed the admission process for first-year junior college (FYJC) in September 2020. Admissions under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) quota were conducted in the first round, but the remaining rounds took place without the reservation after the state government decided to do so. The overall demand for seats under the quota was low as only 20% seats had takers.

This confusion over SEBC quota had led to an unprecedented delay last year in admissions to junior colleges as well as professional courses such as medical, law, management, architecture and engineering. With SC now quashing the reservations and providing clarity, students hope that the admission process is streamlined this year.

“Now that there’s no confusion over the quota, the state common entrance test (CET) cell can conduct the admission process as per schedule,” said a law aspirant on the condition of anonymity. However, CET cell officials said they will wait for directions from the state government before they can act on the reservations issue.

“We are aware of the SC decision. However, CET cell is an executing body. We will wait for directions from the state government on how to hold admissions and what reservations to apply,” said CD Joshi, commissioner, CET Cell.