Mumbai: The Maharashtra government and Maratha activist Vinod Patil Friday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court in connection with the Bombay high court judgment on reservation for the Maratha community.
The caveat was filed to ensure that no judgment is passed without hearing the state government if there are any appeals against the high court verdict (a caveat is filed by a litigant in courts to ensure that no adverse orders are passed against the party without it being heard).
On Thursday, the Bombay high court upheld the reservation given by the state government to the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) but it reduced the percentage of reservation from 16 to 12 to 13.
The Maharashtra government said that no ex-parte order should be passed on any plea challenging the June 27 judgment of the Bombay high court on Maratha reservation without hearing the state.
Mr Patil said, “I have filed a caveat in the Supreme Court so that if anyone approaches the Supreme Court, it has to hear me, too, before passing any order.”
“The community has given me the entire resp-onsibility to fight the leg-al battle, which, I will fulfill till the end,” he said.
The high court on Thursday rejected the contention of the petitioners that the state government has no right to provide reservation and create a separate class of people because it is violating newly-amended Constitutional provision.
“We hold and declare that the state government possesses legislative competence to create a separate category of Socially and Educationally Back-ward Classand grant reservation,” the bench said.
