PIL challenges GR to provide Kunbi certificates to Marathas

A lawyer has challenged Maharashtra's resolution granting Kunbi caste certificates to Marathas for OBC reservations, claiming it violates equality rights and legal frameworks.

MUMBAI: A city-based lawyer, Vinit Dhotre, has challenged the state’s September 2 government resolution (GR), which stipulates granting Kunbi caste certificates to eligible Marathas, which will enable them to get reservation under OBC category, before the Bombay High Court (HC) on Wednesday.

PIL challenges GR to provide Kunbi certificates to Marathas

In his public interest litigation (PIL) Dhotre has claimed that the move is not only violative of the right to equality for OBCs and the Indra Sawhney judgment (of November 1992, in which the apex court held that merit is the rule and reservation to a caste is an exception and therefore total reservation in a state cannot exceed 50% and laid down a cap on the extent of total reservation), but also lacks legislative competence under the Constitution of India to grant reservation.

The petition adds that the state government is not legally competent to issue such a GR under Article 342A of the Constitution, which talks about socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC). The article was introduced by the Constitution (102nd Amendment) Act, 2018, and grants powers to the President to declare a caste as an SEBC. It was subsequently amended in 2021 to allow state governments to maintain an SEBC list, distinct from the Central government.

The lawyer further claimed that the GR was formulated to circumvent the Supreme Court’s fiat in the case of Jaishri Patil vs Chief Minister, Maharashtra, (2021), where it had held that a state government had no power to identify SEBCs. In Jaishri Patil’s case, SC had struck down Maharashtra’s Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, which grants reservations to members of the Maratha community for violating the 50% limit on reservations and the 102nd Amendment of the Constitution.

The PIL also stated that the GR is violative of the procedure mentioned under the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Act, 2000.

It added that the GR would affect over 260 castes and clans who are presently notified as OBCs and are not represented in the government’s mainstream decisions and policies.

The PIL, which will be moved by advocate Rajesh Khobragade before the court on Friday, seeks directions from the court to set aside the notification.