SC refuses to stay Maratha quota, to hear validity plea from March 17

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to pass any interim order to stay the Bombay high court ruling upholding a Maharashtra law giving reservation to Marathas in education and jobs and said it would pass order only after hearing all the sides.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta said the matter required detailed hearing and posted it for March 17. The court made it clear that all replies and counter replies be filed before that date and no adjournment would be granted.It said there is already an interim order passed by the apex court that any appointments or admissions made will be subject to the outcome of the petitions.
On July 12, 2019, the apex court decided to examine the constitutional validity of the Educationally and Socially Backward Classes (ESBC) Act. Issuing notice to the state government, the apex court had made it clear the law cannot be implemented retrospectively.
The state had provided for 16% Maratha reservation in both education and public jobs. The HC brought it down to 12% for education and 13% for jobs as recommended by a state-appointed Backward Classes Commission headed by former HC judge M B Gaikwad. Challenging the June 27 HC judgment, the petitioner contended that the HC misread the SC judgments to conclude that there is no stringent ceiling limit of 50% in reservations and the verdict suffers from "glaring mistakes".
PG medical aspirants plan to move apex court for interim stay again
Postgraduate medical aspirants — fresh candidates and those who failed to get a seat last year due to the Maratha quotas — are planning to file a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking interim relief.
Some of the students who re-appeared for NEET-PG this year and have bettered their performance fear losing out on the seats again if the order is delayed. PG medical admissions in the state are set to commence in a month’s time. Sudha Shenoy, a parents’ representative, said the last year, too, the open category students suffered a lot due to delayed justice. “The quota was reduced from 16% to 12% in June but the differential 4% seats did not get rolled back to general category. We hope the current batch does not suffer the same ordeal as last year,” said Shenoy. The merit list for PG admissions was revised several times last year owing to the court cases against the Maratha quota Uday Dhople, one of the petitioners in the SEBC matter in the SC, said they are planning to mobilise aspirants from 2019 (who did not make it) and 2020 batch to file the petition. “They will be basically stating that the matter has been already delayed on technical grounds. And that the admission process will commence soon,” said Dhople.
Team set up to implement reservations
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday set up a four-member committee headed by public works minister Ashok Chavan for implementation of Maratha reservation policy. Besides Chavan, excise minister Dilip Walse Patil, urban development minister Eknath Shinde and relief & rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar are committee members. “Our responsibility is to tackle hurdles in implementation of Maratha reservation policy. The cabinet sub-committee will monitor cases pending before Supreme Court and provide legal assistance,” Chavan told TOI.