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OBC reservation in Maharashtra: Centre to file its reply in three weeks
OBCs are on the verge of losing their political reservation in local bodies across Maharashtra as it was quashed by the Apex court in March and its review petition in May
The petition filed by the Maharashtra government seeking caste-based census data for OBC reservation will be heard by the Supreme Court (SC) on September 23. The Central government told the Apex court on Tuesday that they would file their reply on the petition in the next three weeks, the officials said.
To restore political reservation for the OBC in local bodies, the state government has sought Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data of Maharashtra from the Central government by filing a writ petition in the Apex court last month.
The petition was heard by the bench of justice AM Khanwilkar and justice Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday.
OBCs are on the verge of losing their political reservation in local bodies across Maharashtra as it was quashed by the Apex court in March and its review petition in May. The Apex court has ruled that the reservation in favour of the OBC in local bodies should not result in exceeding the 50% cap in reservation quota determined by it. It has further directed the state government to appoint a dedicated commission for collecting empirical data, based on which, the reservation quota of the community is fixed.
“The Apex court also asked the state government to pursue the Centre for SECC data of Maharashtra that was conducted in 2011. Following the directives, the state government pursued the matter with them. Since there was no response, the state government decided to file the petition before SC seeking its directives to the registrar general and census commissioner, ministry of social justice and empowerment and rural development to provide the caste-based data of Maharashtra,” said a senior official from law and judiciary department.
On July 5, the state legislature passed a resolution seeking empirical data by the Centre, collected under Socio-Economic Caste Census 2011, for restoration of the political reservation to OBCs.
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