SC to hear plea on quota for Marathas in Maharashtra

New Delhi, Sep 7: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear on September 19 a plea alleging that petitions challenging Maharashtra government decision to grant 16 per cent quota to Marathas in jobs and education in the state were still pending adjudication.

"List it for hearing on September 19," a bench of Justices A R Dave, R K Agrawal and L Nageswara Rao said.

Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, appearing for a lawmaker of Maharashtra, mentioned the matter saying there was an "urgency" as the Bombay High Court, which stayed the order granting quota on November 14, 2014, has not even fixed the matters for final hearing and adjudication despite an order from the apex court.

The apex court, while disposing of an appeal against the order, had asked the High Court to expeditiously decide the issue.

The High Court, in an interim order, had stayed the decision after faulting the data used by the state to back its assertion that the Maratha community was backward.

It had also put on hold the 5 per cent quota in public employment under a special backward class category to about 50 sub-castes among Muslims.

The High Court, however, had not disturbed a similar benefit for backward Muslims in state-owned or aided educational institutions.

The decision to grant reservation to Marathas and Muslims was taken by the erstwhile Congress-NCP government before the 2014 assembly elections.

PTI