MUMBAI: A city advocate has filed a petition before the Bombay high court to seek quashing of a 1994 Maharashtra notification that permits 2 percent reservation to Special Backward Classes (SBC).
The challenge is on the grounds that it takes the overall quota in the state to 52 percent, breaching the 50 percent bar on quotas without showing extraordinary circumstances or compelling reasons, as held by the Supreme Court. The challenge is to the 2 percent SBC reservation in public services in Maharashtra under a December 8, 1994 notification.
Such excessive reservation is “invalid and violative of the provisions of the Constitution of India,” says the petition filed by advocate Sanjeet Shukla as an “authorized representative” of an organization called ‘Youth for Equality’.
The petition was scheduled to be heard on Monday before a bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Madhav Jamdar. Due to paucity of time, it did not reach and will be heard in due course. The petition contends that there is a cabinet note dated 30.11.1994 regarding inclusion of specific castes and tribes in the backward class category. The note, the petition adds, led to declaration of certain castes such as Gowari, Mana, Koshti, Koli etc as special backward category.
The petitioner wanted a hearing for orders of an interim stay against implementation of the “excess 2 percent” quota granted to SBC for government jobs.
