Bombay high court sets July hearing to reconsider challenges to Maratha reservation law
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After the Supreme Court directive, the HC in May constituted a new three-judge bench to hear petitions, including those filed as public interest litigation (PIL), challenging the constitutional validity of the 2024 law providing Maratha reservation.
The state opposed the request for consideration of any interim relief.
The HC is faced with a clutch of petitions that assailed the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2024 (SEBC), which gives 10 percent reservation to the Marathas in public employment.
The new full bench of Justice Ravindra V. Ghuge, Justice N. J. Jamadar, and Justice Sandeep Marne recorded submissions of Advocate General Birendra Saraf.
There were detailed arguments heard in 2024 on interim relief, after which there was an interim arrangement that all further admissions to educational institutions and employment would be subject to the orders of the court. He submitted that this has operated for over a year and that the request for fresh consideration of interim relief was unwarranted.
Pradeep Sancheti, senior counsel for a petitioner challenging the constitutional validity of GR, sought an earlier date. Other lawyers also argued, saying students who took admission last year were also affected and hence were seeking interim orders.
The top court last month asked the HC to expeditiously hear the pleas, including applications by students appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate and postgraduate exams of 2025.
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The students filed pleas seeking interim relief, claiming that a delay in the disposal of pleas was impacting their right to equal consideration in the admission process.
The petitions in the matter were not fully heard when the former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court was transferred in January this year as the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court. The High Court must consider the issue of interim relief without delay due to the wide-reaching impact of the case on students who are currently undergoing the admission process, the Supreme Court said.
Last July, the High Court observed that the Maharashtra state backward class commission, headed by the former High Court Judge, Justice S. B. Shukre, was a necessary party to be heard in one of the PILs filed before it against the validity of the Maratha reservations.
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