Key Points
- On Friday, the Supreme Court of India was hearing the petitions that were challenging the validity of the Maratha Quota (Reservations).
- “Yes, we have moved forward..”, Rohatgi said, “But it is not that backward classes have gone down from 50 to 20 per cent..”
- “How many generations will you continue,” the Supreme Court bench said.
On Friday, the Supreme Court of India was hearing the petitions that were challenging the validity of the Maratha Quota (Reservations). The petitioners argued that the 12% provision in the reservation for the Maratha community in the job sector and 13% in admissions would break the overall 50% quota limit established by the Supreme Court in a landmark verdict in 1992.
The Supreme Court sought to know for how long the system of reservations in the education and jobs sector will continue.
After senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi asked the SC a question urging the SC to re-examine the 50% ceiling on the reservation for economically and socially backward classes, the Court replied saying, “If there is no 50 per cent or no limit, as you are suggesting, what is the concept of equality then. We will ultimately have to deal with it. What is your reflection on that… What about the resultant inequality. How many generations will you continue,” the bench that comprised of Justices L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat.
The increase in the population reaching to a huge number of 135 crores, Rohatgi said there were many reasons for the re-look of the Mandal judgment which was premised on the census of 1931.
The bench said that now 70 years have passed since independence and the states have been carrying on so many beneficial schemes and “can we accept that no development has taken place, that no backward caste has moved forward”.
“Yes, we have moved forward..”, Rohatgi said, “But it is not that backward classes have gone down from 50 to 20 per cent. We still have starvation deaths in this country… I am not trying to say that Indra Sawhney is completely wrong, throw it in the dustbin. I am raising issues that 30 years have gone by, the law has changed, the population has grown, backward persons may also have increased,” Rohatgi said.
The top court has been hearing a clutch of cases challenging the Bombay High Court verdict which upheld the grant of quota to Marathas in admissions and government jobs in the state.
