In an effort to hammer out a viable solution to the current Maratha reservation crisis, the Maharashtra Government on Saturday announced that it would convene a Special session of the State legislature after it received a report from the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) on the socio-economic status of the Maratha community. Talking to media persons after an all-party meeting that he had called called to elicit the views of the leaders of different hues on the Maratha reservation issue, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “We are eagerly waiting for the report from the MSBCC on the socio-economic status of the Maratha community. It is only on the basis of the recommendations made by this Commission that we can move ahead on the reservation issue”
“On its part, the Commissioner called for opinion from people and held public hearings. It has now completed public hearings. We are going to request the Commission to complete its task and submit its report to the Government at the earliest,” the Chief Minister said. “Once we receive the port from the commission, we will examine it and call for a special session of the state legislature to discuss thread bare the recommendations and decide on whether to come out with a new legislation or a pass a resolution regarding Maratha reservations as suggested by the commission,” Fadnavis said. Denying that his Government was delaying a decision on the Maratha reservations, the Chief Minister said: “Our stress is to ensure that our legislation stands the scrutiny of the courts. In the past, the court had thrown the legislation that we had come out because of defects in it”.
After the all-party meeting, State Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagadeand Council Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar issued a statement on behalf of the group leaders of the various parties.
In their statement, the two presiding officers said: “There is a consensus among the political class that the State Government will take necessary steps regarding the Maratha reservations and that the Opposition parties will fully cooperate in these endeavours”. “It was decided to appeal to the MSBCC to submit its report at the earliest and a special legislature session will be convened to fulfil constitutional requirements,” the statement said.
On behalf ofthe various political parties, Bagade and Niak-Nimbalkar appealed to the Maratha community activists not to take extreme steps like attempting suicides or indulging violence and arson.
Several Opposition leaders including Congress’ Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, NCPs Dhananjay Munde, Ajit Pawar and Chhagan Bhujbal, who attended the meeting, said that the State Government should have convened an all party meeting on the Maratha reservations issue a long ago
Though under severe criticism for its failure to address the Maratha reservations issue during the last four years, the Devendra Fadnavis Government is treading cautiously on the issue in view of the setbacks it faced in the high court and Supreme Court in the past.
It may be recalled that on November 14, 2014, the Bombay High Court had stayed an ordinance promulgated by the previous Congress-led DF Government ahead of the October 2014 State Assembly polls extending 16 per cent reservations to Marathas and five per cent to Muslims, saying that they were not in conformity with the law laid down by the Supreme Court in three cases. While it had stayed 16 per cent reservations granted to Marathas through an ordinance dated July 9, 2014 and Government Resolution dated July 15, 2014, the high court also stayed the State Government’s decision to provide five per cent reservation to Muslims in Government jobs.
However, a HC Bench, headed by the then Chief Justice Mohit Shah, allowed reservations to Muslims in educational institutions, on the ground at that their educational achievements were “abysmally low” and that there was a need to draw them into the “mainstream of secular education”.
On its part, the BJP-led saffron alliance Government – which came to power after the October 2014 Assembly polls --subsequently moved the apex court challenging the stay granted by the high court on an ordinance promulgated by the previous Congress-led DF Government. However, the Supreme Court rejected the State Government’s petition.
The matter came back to the high court after advocate Vikas Patil filed an intervention petition in the Supreme Court on the issue.. The apex court directed the high court to hear the bunch of petitions pending before it.
The Bombay High Court is currently hearing a bunch of petitions filed by Tirodkar and others, challenging reservations extended to Maratha and Muslim communities.
Currently Maharashtra has 52 per cent reservations in jobs and educational institutions. However, if the state government is permitted to grant 16 per cent reservations to Marathas and five per cent to Muslims, then the current reservations in the state will go up to 73 per cent.
In the petition that being heard by the Bombay High Court, petioner Tirodkar had among other things challenged the previous DF government’s decision to extend 16 per cent reservations to Maratha community by including its members in the newly created “Educationally & Socially Backward Category” (ECBC) on two grounds. He had said the state government’s decision had violated the Supreme Court’s ruling in Indira Sawhney vs Union of India, 1993, which restricted the reservations to a maximum of 50 per cent.