Amid serious doubts whether the contentious legislation would pass the scrutiny of the Supreme Court, both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature on Tuesday passed a Bill granting 10 per cent reservations in education and government jobs to the Maratha community in the State.

The Maharashtra Assembly and Legislative Council unanimously passed the Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024.

Dubbing the Bill as a “farce” being enacted by the Shinde Sena-BJP-NCP (Ajit Pawar) Government during the election, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar said that the Bill would not stand the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.

The Marathas account for nearly 30 per cent of the total 11 crore population of Maharashtra.  Currently, the Maharashtra has 52 per cent reservations (Scheduled Castes 13 per cent,  Scheduled Tribes  7 per cent, Other Backward Classes  19 per cent, Special Backward Classes  2 per cent, Vimukta Jati -3 per cent, Nomadic Tribes (B)  2.5 per cent, Nomadic Tribes (C)  3.5 per cent and Nomadic Tribes (D) 2 per cent). The 10 per cent reservation granted to the Maratha community will take the total reservations to 62 per cent.  

It may be recalled that on November 29, 2018, both the Houses of the Maharashtra Legislature had passed a Bill granting reservations 16 per cent reservations in education and government jobs to the Maratha community in

the State.

Later on May 5, 2021, the SC had set aside the Act on various grounds, which included breaching of the 50 per cent cap on the reservations.

Subsequently,  a five-judge bench of the Supreme court had in April 2023 refused to re-examine the apex court’s order of May 2021 by which it had declared a Maharashtra law to grant reservation to Marathas “unconstitutional”.

In a related development, Shivba Sanghatana leader Manoj Jarange-Patil, whose fast-unto-death agitation had prompted the state government to introduce the Maratha reservation Bill in the State Legislature, refused to call off his 11-day-old agitation, by saying that the passed legislation amounted to the “betrayal to the Maratha community”, since the quota should have been provided under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category and not separate.

Jarange-Patil has called a meeting of the representatives of Maratha community at noon on Wednesday to decide on his future course of action.        

Earlier, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that his government had all been committed to giving reservations to the Maratha community. “All of us have similar views on the Maratha reservation. With the co-operation of you all, we could do it. I kept my promise which I made to the Maratha community. I thank all my colleagues including my both deputy chief ministers and other ministers. Today is a day of fulfilment of our promises”.

“We want to give reservation to the Maratha community without touching the existing quota of the OBCs in the state. The Marathas have been struggling for the last over 40 years to get reservation benefits,” Shinde

The Maratha reservation bill passed by the Maharashtra Legislature is based on a report report submitted by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) on the social and educational backwardness of the Maratha community.