Legal challenges ahead of Maratha reservations

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, November 30

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The Maharashtra Government’s move to introduce reservations in educational institutions and government jobs for the Maratha community is giving rise to fresh demand from other groups even as affected parties plan to move court.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen was the first to announce that it was moving court to demand reservation for the Muslim community.

Party MLA Imtiyaz Jalil told reporters that they would present several fresh facts to press for reservation for Muslims.

“We are not planning to challenge reservations for the Marathas. But we want quotas for Muslims,” Jalil told reporters here.

However, representatives of other groups in the general category who stand to lose their share in educational institutions and government jobs say they will challenge the reservations in court.

Some parents have already met with officials of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research to seek clarification on the number of seats available in the general category in government-run medical
colleges.

Even while some of them threatened protests they were however told to await the formal notification from the government on reservation for various categories of students.

“Parents should first wait for the government’s notification on reservations,” Dr Pravin Shingare, Director, DMER said.

According to information released by some groups, only 275 of the 3,050 seats in government-run medical colleges would be available under the general category following the reservation granted to the Maratha community.

Dr Shingare assured groups of parents that the government was working on a solution to allay the fears of students in the general category.

Following the reservation for the Maratha community, 68 per cent of seats in educational institutions and government jobs would be under various quotas.

Leaders of several Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes feel that the Maharashtra Government may dilute their quotas should the courts strike down the Maratha quotas.

The Supreme Court had earlier set a cap on reserved seats at 50 per cent. Messages going around on social media also question the logic of granting a whopping 16 per cent quota for the Maratha community.

Members of SC, ST and OBC groups are calling for a higher share of quotas on the ground that they are more backward than members of the Maratha community.

Questions are also being asked on how the government has estimated Marathas at 32 per cent of Maharashtra’s
population since the official census carried out every ten years does not enumerate people on the basis of caste. “There is just 27 per cent reservation for more than 300 different castes in Maharashtra, but 16 per cent reservations have been given for the Marathas alone,” says one message doing the rounds on WhatsApp groups.

With various groups planning to challenge the reservation in courts, the Maharashtra Government is gearing up for a tough fight.

“We are already hiring a battery of senior lawyers so that the reservations for Marathas are not struck down by the courts,” Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde said on Friday.