The bill passed today is exactly like the bills passed by previous governments: Sharad Pawar
Mumbai/Pune:
NCP founder Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said the draft Maratha quota bill passed by the Maharashtra Legislature was similar to an earlier law that could not stand legal scrutiny, and said the Supreme Court will decide the fate of the new bill.
The state legislature has unanimously passed the Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill 2024, providing 10 percent reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and education under a new category.
Pawar said, “The draft of the bill passed by the state legislature today is very similar to the bill presented before the apex court. We need to see what happens to the new bill in the Supreme Court.”
He met Kolhapur royal Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj at his residence.
Mr Pawar said, “The bill passed today is exactly like the bills passed by previous governments. Those bills could not withstand legal scrutiny.”
Earlier attempts by state governments to introduce reservations for Marathas have been rejected by the courts.
Notably, just before the elections in 2014, the then Congress government led by Prithviraj Chavan had issued an ordinance imposing 16 percent reservation for Marathas. The Bombay High Court struck it down citing the 50 per cent limit imposed by the Supreme Court.
In 2018, the Devendra Fadnavis government announced 16 per cent reservation for Marathas, which was struck down by the apex court in 2021 as it violated the 50 per cent quota limit, and there were no ‘exceptional circumstances’ to justify.
“When our government was in power, reservation for Marathas was quashed at the High Court level. When Devendra Fadnavis was in power, it survived the scrutiny of the High Court, but was struck down by the Supreme Court The fate of the Supreme Court will be decided if the bill is passed today,” Pawar said.
He said it was not possible to predict the legal outcome, but past decisions of the courts had not been favorable.
Asked about activist Manoj Jarange’s stance that Marathas should get reservation under the OBC category, Pawar said, “Jarange has called a meeting tomorrow in which he can clarify his position.”
He said, “Since Jaranez, who is leading the movement on this issue, will speak about the quota decision tomorrow, it is not appropriate to speak on it.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
