Within a week after he moved the Bombay High Court challenging the newly enacted Maharashtra legislation granting 16 per cent reservations to Marathas, lawyer Gunratna Sadavarte was on Monday assaulted by a pro-quota activist outside the High Court.
Sadavarte, who has filed a PIL on behalf of his client Jayashree Patil of the Indian Constitutionalist Council (ICI) challenging the new Maratha Reservations Act, was roughed up by an unemployed youth – identified as one Vaijnath Mukne Patil from Jalna — soon after he finished briefing the media on the Maratha reservations outside the high court.
The drama unfolded soon after Sadavarte completed his media briefing and began to walk away. Patil, an unemployed graduate, suddenly came forward from the crowd, raised a now popular slogan ‘Ek Maratha, Lak Maratha’ (One Maratha is equivalent to one lakh Marathas), pushed and punched Sadavarte in the face. With his spectacles down on the ground, Sadavarte lost his balance.
Patil hurled abuses at Sadavarte and demanded to know from the latter as to why he had challenged the Maratha reservations in the court. Meanwhile, some policemen and lawyers rushed Patil’s help and managed to catch hold of the attacker
Meanwhile, attacker Patil taken to the Azad Maidan Police station where he was detained for questioned.
The incident took place within minutes after Sadavarte’s PIL came up for hearing before a HC division bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice MS Karnik
The PIL, filed by Sadavarte, states that the new Maratha Reservations – better known as the Maharashtra State (of seats for admission in educational institutions in the state and for appointments in the public services and posts under the state) for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 — is in violation of the 50 per cent cap imposed by the Supreme Court on reservations.
Among other things, the petition states that the Maratha community — the Kunbi-Marathas — have already been given a reservation under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and the additional reservations will only create a class within a class, affecting those who do not belong to any reserved category.
Earlier, talking to media persons, Sadavarte said that ever since he filed a petition in the high court challenging the new Maratha Reservation Act, said that he had received more than one thousand threats.
“I have registered a complaint about threats to my with the Bhoiwada police station. I have also informed the Chief Justice about the threats received by me ever since I filed an PIL in the court. I have also urged the high court to provide adequate police protection to me,” he said.
The high court, meanwhile, ordered that Patil and his family members be provided police protection.
It may be recalled that on December 3, the Maharashtra a caveat in the Supreme Court seeking a hearing in the event of anyone challenging the new Maharashtra Reservation Act granting 16 per cent reservations to Marathas in education and jobs.
The move came two days after Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao signed the Maratha reservation bill enacting the law. The bill had earlier been passed unanimously by both the Houses of Maharashtra on November 29.
The caveat, filed by Advocate Nishant Katneswarkar on behalf of the Maharashtra Government in the apex court, reads thus: “No order be passed in the matter without notice to the Maharashtra Government. The caveator (Maharashtra Government) was the authorised party who issued the Maharashtra Act.”
Their apprehension in the state government’s mind that its new Maratha Reservation Act might get entangled in litigation can be evidenced from that by enacting a law granting 16 per cent reservations to Marathas, the Devendra Fandavis depensation has exceeded the 50 per cent cap on reservations imposed by the Supreme Court and in the process followed the suit of the Tamil Nadu Government.
Currently Maharashtra has 52 per cent reservations in jobs and educational institutions. Of the total 52 per cent reservations, SCs and ST communities account for 13 and 7 per cent, respectively, while OBCs have 19 per cent per cent reservations, Together, Special Backward Class and Nomadic Tribes account for 13 per cent.
The Marathas, who have now been accorded 16 per cent reservations in education and Government jobs, account for nearly 33 per cent of the total 11.25 crore population of Maharashtra.
Once the Maharashtra State SEBC Act comes into force, then the total reservations in the State will go up to 68 per cent — next only to Tamil Nadu that has 69 per cent reservations.
Though Devendra Fadnavis dispensation has not clarified as to how it would face the scrutiny of the new law in the Supreme Court, it looks like the Maharashtra government will take the route taken by the Tamil Nadu government under late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, which achieved its objective of increasing reservations to 69 per cent by passing the Tamil Nadu Act of 1994 and adding the 1994 Act to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution.