The state government on Monday urged the Bombay high court to remove its stay on reservations for Marathas (in government jobs and education) and for Muslims (in government jobs). The state government told the court it had additional material to support providing reservations for these two communities.
Special counsel for the government, advocate Darius Khambata, sought time to place the additional material before the court; and a division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice BP Colabawalla has granted the government four weeks time for the same.
Khambata made this plea while responding to a bunch of public interest litigations challenging the June 25, 2014, decision of the state cabinet to grant benefit of reservation in education and public employment to Marathas (16%) and specified Muslim communities (5 %).
The high court had, while hearing the PILs on November 14 last year, stayed the implementation of the decision to carve out reservations for Marathas entirely, but allowed the benefit of 5 % reservation for specified Muslim communities in education to continue. This decision was later upheld by the Supreme Court, when the state approached it seeking reversal of the high court order.
The high court bench in its interim order held that it was not open to the government to regard Maratha community as a backward class in view of clear findings recorded by the Mandal Commission (1990), by the National Commission for Backward Classes in February 2000 and July 2008 report of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (Bapat Commission).
The bench had also observed that the apex court has said that percentage of reservation, as regards public employment, cannot exceed a limit of 50 %. The bench had said that the state has no power to breach the ceiling limit and therefore, the implementation of ordinances providing for reservation for Marathas in public employment and education for and specified Muslim communities in public employment cannot be allowed.
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