The Apex Court on Wednesday rejected a plea challenging Maharashtra government's decision to grant 16 per cent reservation to Marathas in jobs and education in the state and the matter were still pending adjudication.
However, a bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and A M Khanwilkar allowed the petitioner Vinod Narayan Patil to approach Bombay High Court for "expeditious" hearing of the case.
View of the bench
- "We see no reason to interfere with the order impugned. The special leave petition is accordingly dismissed. We leave it to the petitioner to approach the High Court for an expeditious hearing of the matter, in which event, we expect the High Court to consider the prayer sympathetically," the bench said.
- Earlier the Bombay High Court stayed the order granting reservation on November 14, 2014. Despite an order from Supreme Court, the matters has not even fixed for final hearing and adjudication.
Reservation in jobs for Marathas: Know about the recent development
- Earlier, in an interim order, the Bombay High Court had stayed the decision after faulting the data used by the state to back its assertion that the Maratha community was backward
- Five per cent quota in public employment to about 50 sub-castes among Muslims under a special backward class category had also put on hold. However, the court had not intervened a similar benefit granted for the backward Muslims
- Before the 2014 assembly elections, the erstwhile Congress- NCP government took a decision to grant reservation to Marathas and Muslims.