New Delhi:
There will be no Martha fee for jobs or college admissions for now, the Supreme Court said today, sending the broader issue of the validity of that fee to a larger bank. Chief Justice of India SA Bobde will accept a call on the constitution of the largest court, the court said in response to petitions that challenged the law, arguing that the total quota now exceeds the 50 percent limit set. by the superior court. .
While the ruling has halted admissions under the Maratha quota for this year, admissions to graduate courses will not be altered, said the three-judge tribunal of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat, which issued the verdict.
Maharashtra had passed a law, the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act (SEBC), in 2018, which allowed a 16 percent reserve for Marathas in educational institutions and government positions.
After the law was challenged, the Bombay High Court “upheld the constitutional validity of the law. The court, however, reduced the amount of the fee, saying it was not “justifiable.”
In July, following the order of the high court, the Maharashtra government reduced the Maratha reserve from 16% to 12% in educational institutions and to 13% in government positions.
The Superior Court decision was challenged in the Supreme Court by several petitioners. One of them, who represented the non-profit organization “Youth for Equality”, argued that the quota law “violated the limit of 50 percent of the reserve set by the higher court in its historic ruling in the Indira case. Sahwney, also known as the “Mandal Verdict”.
In July, the Supreme Court refused to temporarily freeze the Bombay High Court order.
The state government, anticipating a challenge to the reservation law, had previously filed a qualification in the superior court saying that “an ex-parte order should not be issued on any ground challenging the judgment of the superior court without listening to the state.”
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