The Supreme Court on May 5 struck down the Maharashtra law granting quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs, terming it as unconstitutional.

It held there were no exceptional circumstances to breach the 50 per cent reservation cap set by the 1992 Mandal verdict.

The top court also refused to refer the Mandal judgment to a larger bench for reconsideration, saying it has been upheld time and again by its various verdicts.

The judgment came on a batch of pleas challenging the Bombay High Court verdict which had upheld the grant of reservation to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state.  

Who are the Marathas?

The Marathas form 33 per cent of Maharashtra’s 13 crore population. They are a Marathi-speaking, politically dominant community in Maharashtra. 

According to a report by the State Backward Classes Commission (SBCC), as much as 37.28 per cent Marathas are living below the poverty line (BPL) and 93 per cent of the families from the community have an annual income of less than Rs 1 lakh.

More than 76 per cent of Maratha families are dependent on agriculture and farm labour, and the community has only 6 per cent representation in government and semi-government services, it said.

Ahead of the 2014 Assembly polls, the then Congress-NCP government led by Prithviraj Chavan granted 16 per cent reservation to the community along with a 5 per cent quota for Muslims through an ordinance. 

In November 2014, Bombay High Court stayed the implementation of the ordinance.

The campaign for quota intensified after a 14-year-old Maratha girl from Kopardi village in Ahmednagar district was raped and murdered in July 2016.

Subsequently, more than 50 silent marches were undertaken by Maratha organisations across the state in 2016 and 2017.

On November 30, 2018, the state Assembly unanimously passed a Bill giving 16 per cent quota to Marathas in jobs and education.

The Maharashtra State Reservation (of seats for admission in educational institutions in the State and for appointments in the public services and posts under the State) for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 was enacted to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community in the state in jobs and admissions.

Several petitions were filed in the HC challenging the reservation. The petitioners also challenged the creation of a separate socially and educationally backward class (SEBC) category for Marathas and said it was violative of the Supreme Court orders that say reservation in no state shall exceed 50 per cent.

The High Court, while upholding the law in June 2019, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions.

SC strikes down law

The Centre argued in the Supreme Court that Maharashtra has the legislative competence for granting reservation to Marathas and its decision is Constitutional as the 102nd amendment does not denude a state of the power to declare its list of Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC).

The 102nd Constitution amendment Act of 2018 inserted Articles 338B, which deals with the structure, duties and powers of the National Commission for Backward Class (NCBC), and 342A dealing with power of the President to notify a particular caste as SEBC as also of Parliament to change the list.

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. 

The top court unanimously refused to refer the Mandal judgment to a larger bench for reconsideration on issues including permitting the state to breach the 50 per cent ceiling on quota in extraordinary circumstances.  

The 50% reservation limit

In 1992, the Supreme Court in its famous Indra Sawhney judgment,also known as the ‘Mandal verdict’, capped caste-based reservation to 50 per cent. It ruled that “no provision of reservation or preference can be so vigorously pursued as to destroy the very concept of equality”. The limit could be exceeded only in compelling circumstances, it added.

However, in Tamil Nadu the reservation is set at 69 per cent. The state Assembly passed the Tamil Nadu Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Act, 1993, to keep its reservation limit intact at 69 per cent. The law was subsequently included into the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution through the 76th Constitution Amendment passed by Parliament in 1994.

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