SC QUASHES MARATHA QUOTA LAW

SC QUASHES MARATHA QUOTA LAW

Subject: Polity

Context: Recently, the Supreme Court has quashed the Maharashtra law granting reservation to the Maratha community in admissions and government jobs in the state.

Concept:

• It made it clear in its judgment that people from the Maratha community cannot be declared as educationally and socially backward community to bring them within the reserved category.
• The court refused to refer the 1992 Mandal judgment (Sawhney judgment), setting a 50 per cent cap on reservation, to a larger bench for reconsideration.
• The court ruled that the state government had not made any extraordinary circumstance to grant such reservation.
• The bench also upheld the 102nd constitutional amendment saying it does not violate the basic structure of the constitution.
• The President (that is the Central government) alone, to the exclusion of all other authorities, is empowered to identify SEBCs and include them in a list to be published under Article 342A (1), which shall be deemed to include SEBCs in relation to each State and Union Territory for the purposes of the Constitution,
• States could only make suggestions to the President or the statutory commissions concerned for inclusion, exclusion or modification of castes and communities to be included in the List.
• The Central List is to be the “only list” for the SEBC.

What powers 102nd Amendment gives?

• The amendment that gave powers to the President to notify socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC).
• The 102nd amendment deals with the constitutional status of the National Commission for Backward Classes.
• The power of the Parliament to change the SEBC list was not to take away the powers of the state, but was fulfilling a long-held demand for constitutional status to the National Commission on Backward Classes (NCBC).
• It allows the commission to appropriately examine implementation of reservation given to OBCs in services and education.