Key points :
• An oral plea was made by the state government before the Chief Justice of India for urgent constitution of larger , five judge bench to hear the Maratha Reservation matter and it’s plea to vacate the stay on quota.
• The CJI orally directed Rohtagj to make an appropriate application before the Supreme Court for it to consider the bench formation request.
The state government on Monday through senior counsel Mukund Rohtagi made an oral plea before the bench of the Chief Justice of India S A Bobde for the urgent constitution of a larger, five judge bench to hear the Maratha Reservation matter and it’s plea to vacate the stay on quota.
Last June, The Bombay High Court had upheld the validity of the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 but reduces the original 16% quota to 12% for education and 13% for public jobs. A new plea citing the “grave urgency” was sent by State Government advocate Sachin Patil within few hours and it sought that the plea should be placed before the Chief Justice of India for the constitution of the larger bench.
The plea said that the September 9 stay on the enforcement of the Maratha quota in education and state job had “affected ongoing admissions and recruitment processes in the entire state and thousands of students and candidates are suffering”.
“This is a very positive development. We are hoping that a constitutional bench is set up and the matter is heard at the earliest”, said Ashok Chavan – Cabinet Minister and head of the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha Reservations.
He said there were some people who were trying to put one community against another. “Maratha reservation will be given without touching the reservation that the OBC community already has”, Chavan said.
On October 21, the State had written to the Supreme Court registry with a request to place it’s application for lifting of the stay granted on September 9 before a larger, five judge bench as the appeal against the Bombay High Court judgement which upheld the validity of the SEBC Act was referred to a constitutional bench. It had asked that it’s plea to vacate the stay be deleted from the three judge bench where it was scheduled for a hearing on October 27.
