Third time lucky? Why this Act is unlike two previous bids to provide Marathas quota

NOW THAT the Maharashtra Assembly has unanimously passed a Bill to set aside 10% reservation for the Marathas under socially and educationally backward categories in jobs and education, the question on everyone’s minds is, will it clear judicial scrutiny.

The Bill was formulated based on a report of the Justice (retired) Sunil B Shukre-led Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC). However, at least two previous legislation extending quota to Marathas have failed legal challenge, which was the point on which the Opposition tried to pin the Eknath Shinde-led government on Tuesday.

One common thread running through the three bids has been that all came in the run-up to elections.

In a first bid for a special law for Marathas, the then Prithviraj Chavan-led Congress government brought in an ordinance giving 16% reservation in government jobs and education to the community, ahead of the 2014 elections. It was based on the recommendations of a Narayan Rane-led committee, which was not a statutory backward class commission.

The ordinance was challenged before the Bombay High Court, and it stayed the move in its interim order of November 2014. In the same year, the Supreme Court refused to vacate the stay.

In 2015, the BJP-Shiv Sena government led by Devendra Fadnavis turned the ordinance into an Act, which was passed in the Assembly. However, a year later, the Bombay High Court stayed the Act for its resemblance to the ordinance.

In 2017, the Fadnavis government set up the Maharashtra State Backward Class commission under Justice (retd) M G Gaikwad of the Bombay High Court.

The Gaikwad panel gave its report in November 2018, after a survey of 43,629 families, with at least two villages picked from each of the 355 talukas in