Supreme Court strikes down Maratha Reservation

  • The Supreme Court struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018.
  • The act extends reservation to the Maratha community in public education and employment. 
  • The the Bombay High Court had previously upheld the constitutional validity of the quota, 
  • It said that the quota should be reduced from 16% to 12-13%, as recommended by the State Backward Classes Commission.
THE CURRENT DECISION
  • Case name: Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister.
  • The judgment was delivered by a Constitution bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat.
  • The Court said that there were no extraordinary circumstances to grant reservation to Maratha community over and above 50% ceiling.
  • Exceeding the ceiling limit above 50% without exceptional circumstances violates Article 14.
  • The Court further ruled that Gaikwad Commission has not made out a case of existence of extraordinary situation and exceptional circumstances to classify Marathas as Socially and Economically Backward Caste.
COMMENTS ON 1992 RULING
  • The Court also ruled that the 1992 judgment of the Supreme Court in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India need not be referred to larger Bench and the 50% ceiling on reservation is good law. 
  • It said that exceeding ceiling limit of 50 percent laid down by Indra Sawhney is violative of Articles 14 and 15. 

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