Boost for Marathas: on Bombay HC upholding reservation for Marathas (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2: Polity
Prelims level : Maratha reservations
Mains level : Highlighting the Bombay High Court verdict in favour of the quota

Context

• The Bombay High Court verdict upholding reservation for Marathas in public employment and education must come as a major relief to the Maharashtra government, which has faced strident agitations from the community in the past for reservation benefits.
• When Maharashtra enacted special legislation to confer reservation benefits in education and public employment on the Maratha community last year, a formidable legal challenge was expected.

Highlighting about the law

• The law created a group called ‘Socially and Educationally Backward Class’ and included Marathas as the sole group under the category, and extended 16% reservation outside the existing quotas for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and other tribes and backward classes.
• The foremost hurdle was the fact that the additional Maratha component would take the reservation up to 68%, thus going beyond the limit of 50% imposed by the Supreme Court.
• There were doubts whether one particular caste group could constitute a special class.
• The 487-page judgment is a brave effort at answering these difficult questions.
• Significantly, it has ruled that there were “exceptional circumstances and an extraordinary situation” to warrant the crossing of the 50% limit.
• It has upheld the government’s decision to accept the Maharashtra Backward Classes Commission’s report on the backwardness of the Maratha community, faulted it for exceeding the panel’s recommendation for 12-13% reservation and pulled back the figure to the recommended level.

Objectives of the law

• The failure to treat this group as backward for decades has pushed its members deeper into social and educational backwardness.
• It says, an extraordinary situation has been created wherein the State had to treat them as a separate category.
• It is doubtful whether a politically influential and dominant community can be treated as a special category in itself, even if it is educationally backward and under-represented in the services owing to lack of reservation benefits.
• The uplift of the Marathas can be achieved by including it in the OBC list.
• If there were concerns about too large a population sharing too small a quota, the existing OBC reservation could have been expanded, instead of Marathas being given separate reservation.

Conclusion

• Further, Marathas have been classified as the only member of the newly created ‘SEBC’.
• The court seems to have ignored the fact that being socially and educationally backward is the constitutional reason for OBC reservation.
• It is befuddling how ‘SEBC’ can be a separate category outside the OBCs.
• Further, whether adequate grounds have been established to make an exception to the 50% limit will likely be examined by the Supreme Court closely.
• Mere expansion of the reservation pool is unlikely to be a constitutionally permissible reason for it.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the Polavaram Project, consider the following statements:
1. It envisages construction of Earth-cum-Rock fill dam across river Krishna.
2. It is declared as a National project by the Government of India.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both
D. None

Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q.1) The Bombay High Court verdict in favour of the quota needs examination. Comment