PIL seeking to expedite quota report nixed

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Wednesday disposed of the petition filed to expedite the process of preparing a report on the Maratha community. The government has asked the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission to determine whether or not the Marathas are socially and economically backward. The state government informed the court that the report has been submitted to it and only recommendations have been accepted by the state, so now preparations are going on to make a law based on them.

On Wednesday, additional government pleader Abhi-nandan Vagyani informed the court that the state Cabinet had received the recommendations from the commission and further action is being taken. “The state Cabinet is in the process of placing the rep-ort before Assembly and taking other appropriate steps,” Mr Vagyani said.

A bench of Justices B.P. Dharamadhikari and Sarang Kotwal noted that the commission and the state had complied with the court’s previous orders on submission of such recommendations and, therefore, there did not remain any need for a further hearing on the petitions. The court also said, “Once the commission’s recommendations are placed before the legislature and made public, the petitioners can approach this court if they still have any grievances.”

The bench was hearing a bunch of petitions filed between 2014 and 2015 after the Congress-NCP government granted 16 per cent quota in government jobs and education to the Maratha community.

While some of the petitions opposed the government’s decision, two petitions had sought immediate implementation of the quota. In November 2014, in an interim order, a division bench of the HC had stayed the then government’s dec-ision to provide the 16 per cent quota on the grounds that it was in breach of the Supreme Court’s order that prescribed an upper limit of 50 per cent for caste and community-based quota.