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Supreme Court strikes down Maratha reservation in jobs, education
The Supreme Court also quashed the Maratha reservation in so far it breaches the 50% ceiling of reservation, and struck down the Maharashtra law that guaranteed the community their quota in public education and employement.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the Maharashtra law that held the Maratha community as socially and economically backward, thereby ending the Maratha reservation in public education and employment. In doing so, the Supreme Court also quashed the Maratha reservation in so far it breaches the 50% ceiling of reservation. The top court, while nixing the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, said that it violates equality as under Article 14 of the Constitution.
The five-judge Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta, and Ravindra Bhat, pronounced the verdict on Wednesday at 10:30am. The bench had earlier on March 26 reserved judgment in the case after a back-to-back hearing for 10 days.
On Wednesday, the top court was hearing petitions challenging an earlier Bombay high court order which upheld the Maratha quota in 2019 and had ruled that the 50% cap on total reservations imposed by the Supreme Court could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances. Justice Ashok Bhushan said, "Neither the Gaikwad nor the submissions have made out any situation for exceeding the 50% reservation ceiling for Marathas. Therefore, we find there are no extraordinary circumstances for exceeding the ceiling. The Act for granting reservation has not made any circumstance for granting reservation to the Maratha community."
Thereafter, the Supreme Court bench struck down the amendment which held that the Marathas are socially and economically backward classes, while adding that the classes which are already held to be so will be as per Article 342A of the Constitution.
