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Maratha Quota : Supreme Court Does Not Give Nod, Insists Maharashtra Reservation Cannot Exceed 50%

 

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Supreme Court has struck down the Maharashtra law granting quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs, terming it as “unconstitutional”, and held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict.

SC also made it clear in its judgement that people from the Maratha community cannot be declared as educationally and socially backward community to bring them within the reserved category.

Justice Bhushan said that with respect to Article 342-A, we have upheld the Constitutional Amendment and it does not violate any Constitutional provision and therefore, we have dismissed the writ petition challenging the Maratha Reservation.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan concurred on three major issues, framed during the hearing, and said the MC Gaikwad commission report which was the basis for the Maratha quota did not highlight any exceptional circumstances for grant of reservation to the community.

The five-judge bench gave four verdicts, while concurring unanimously on three major issues including that the grant of Maratha quota is invalid.

Justices LN Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat concurred with Justice Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer in upholding the constitutional validity of the 102nd amendment but said states cannot decide on the list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and only the President has the power to notify it.

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