SC adjourns for 4 weeks Maharashtra govt's plea against stay on Maratha reservation

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned, for four weeks, the hearing on a plea filed by the Maharashtra government seeking the vacation of its stay on the reservation to the people of the Maratha community in education and jobs in the State.

A bench of the apex court, headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao, adjourned the hearing on the matter for four weeks. When the matter came up for hearing, Justice Rao called on Maharashtra state lawyer to argue the case.

"Where is he (the lawyer)?" Justice Rao had asked as there was nobody from the side of the Maharashtra government, after which the judges passed over the matter to hear it later and then adjourned it for four weeks.

A three-judge bench of the apex court, which had earlier granted a stay on the Maratha reservation, was hearing plea filed by the Maharashtra government challenging the stay on the reservation to the people of the Maratha community in education and jobs in the state.

The apex court had last month directed that no quota will be granted to people of the Maratha community in education and jobs in the state this year and referred the hearing on a batch of plea challenging the constitutional validity of a Maharashtra law granting Maratha reservation in education and jobs to a larger bench.

The stay was issued on two appeals, including one filed by J Laxman Rao Patil challenging the Bombay High Court order that upheld the constitutional validity of the quota for the Maratha community in education and government jobs in the state.

The Bombay High Court had on June 27, 2019, observed that the 50 per cent cap on total reservations imposed by the Supreme Court could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.

Another appeal filed by advocate Sanjeet Shukla, a representative of 'Youth for Equality', said the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, enacted to grant reservation to the Maratha community people in jobs and education, breached the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation fixed by the top court in its judgment in the Indira Sawhney case.

( With inputs from ANI )