The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down the 2018 Maratha Reservation law framed by the Maharashtra government giving reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions.

A five-judge constitution bench ruled that the state failed to show any extraordinary circumstances to grant reservation to the Maratha community over and above the 50 per cent ceiling on reservation set by the Supreme Court in its 1992 judgement in Indira Sawhney vs Union of India, which is also known as Mandal Commission.

“Neither the Gaikwad Commission nor the High Court has made out any situation for exceeding the ceiling of 50 per cent reservation for Marathas. Therefore, we find there are no extraordinary circumstances for exceeding the ceiling,” Live Law quoted the bench as saying.

The Apex Court also said that the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, passed by the Maharashtra government in 2018, violated the principles of equality. However, the bench clarified that the judgment will not affect the PG Medical Admissions under the Maratha quota made till September 9, 2020.

Here is a background on Maratha Reservation law - How the legislation came into exisitence and how the political parties in Maharashtra have reacted to Apex Court’s ruling;

Who are the Marathas?

Marathas are a politically dominated community in Maharashtra where they make up 32 per cent of the state’s population. Historically identified as the ‘warriors’, they hold a significant political and social power in Maharashtra. The agrarian community has immense political power with at least 12 chief minister of the state from the Maratha community. They also own a major part of the land in the Maharashtra as well as sugar factories besides controlling educational institutions and cooperative bodies.

Despite holding a political dominance, subsequent division of land and agrarian problems over the years have led to a decline of prosperity among middle- and lower-middle-class Marathas and this is why the Marathas are demanding for reservation in jobs and education insititutions.

How did the law come into existence?

On June 25, 2014, the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party Democratic Front government then headed by Prithviraj Chavan, approved a proposal to reserve 16% of government jobs and seats in educational institutions for Marathas and 5% for Muslims, which was later struck down by the Bombay High Court.

In June, 2017, the BJP-Shiv Sena government then headed by Devendra Fadnavis constituted a 11-member State Backward Class Commission headed by Justice (retd) NG Gaikwad to study the social, financial and educational status of Maratha community.

The Gaikwad Commission found that 93% of Maratha families had an annual income of ₹ 1 lakh and that 37.38% of families were Below Poverty Line against the State average of 24.2 %, and importantly 71% owned less than 2.5 acres and concluded that the community needed a reservation. The Committee submitted its report to the Maharashtra government in 2018 recommending reservation for Maratha under an independent category called socially and educationally backward class.

On November 30, 2018, Maharashtra government enacted a law to providing 16 per cent reservation to Maratha after coming to power in the state in 2014, The SEBC Bill was passed in the state assembly, granting 16 per cent reservation for the community in government jobs and positions in educational institutions. The legislation proposed by the BJP-Sena government got unanimous support from then opposition parties Congress and NCP.

The bill was passed after years of struggle and protests by the Maratha community. Maharashtra saw a spate of protests and unrest by the Marathas demanding quota for more than 2 decades. Marathwada region in the state was worst affected by these protests.

However, after the reservation was granted under SEBC, the legislation was challenged by a PIL in Bombay High Court.

What did the Bombay High Court ruling say?

On June 27, 2019, a division bench of the High Court upheld the constitutional validity of reservation for the Maratha community but ruled that the 16% quota granted by the state was not “justifiable”, and reduced it to 12% in education and 13% in government jobs, as recommended by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC). The Bench ruled that “the limit of the reservation should not exceed 50%”, however, “in exceptional circumstances and extraordinary situations, this limit can be crossed subject to availability of quantifiable and contemporaneous data reflecting backwardness, the inadequacy of representation and without affecting the efficiency in administration”.

How did the High court ruling affect the existing reservation?

Following the Bombay High court ruling, the addition of a 12% Maratha quota took the total reservation to around 64 per cent. Before the Maratha quota, total reservation in the state accounted for 52 per cent. It included Scheduled Castes (13%), Scheduled Tribes (7%), Other Backward Classes (19%), Special Backward Class (2%), Vimukti Jati (3%), Nomadic Tribe B (2.5%), Nomadic Tribe C-Dhangar (3.5%) and Nomadic Tribe D-Vanjari (2%).

How political parties have reacted to the Supreme Court ruling?

All three parties in the ruling coalition – the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress – have always been in the favour of the Maratha quota. NCP was the first party to promise Maratha reservation in 2009 and the BJP-led Fadnavis government enacted SEBC Act to grant reservation to people of the Maratha community.

However, the Supreme Court will not go down well with the political parties in Maharashtra. The blame game has already begun in the state with former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis attacking the state government over its handling of the case in the Supreme Court. He claimed that there was a "lack of coordination" on part of the government while making its submissions before the apex court. “There are many things about which we could have convinced the court...but the state government focused on some other aspects," Fadnavis said.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil demanded that the state government call an all-party meeting and a special session of the Assembly to discuss the issue. “It is a complete failure of the state government. It failed to convince the SC on why it was important to breach the 50 per cent ceiling on quota under extraordinary circumstances in the state concerning the Maratha community," Patil said.

Congress leader and state minister Ashok Chavan has criticised Devendra Fadnavis for passing the SEBC Act in 2018 without "due rights". "Passing a law when you had no such right amounts to misleading the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly and the council by Fadnavis as the then CM. This amounts to cheating the people by giving them false information," he alleged.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has termed Supreme Court's decision to strike down a reservation for the Maratha community in Maharashtra as unfortunate and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in this matter and make a law to give reservations to Marathas.

"Unfortunate that Supreme Court rejected the law of reservation to Maratha community in Maharashtra. We had unanimously passed a law for the sake of life with self-respect to our Maratha community. Now SC says that Maharashtra can not make law on this, only Prime Minister and President can," the Chief Minister said.