New Delhi, May 5
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018 that gave reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and education, saying it breached the 50% ceiling fixed by a nine-judge Constitution Bench in the Mandal case.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan held that there were no extraordinary circumstances to give reservation to the Maratha community beyond the 50% ceiling prescribed in the Indra Sawhney versus Union of India, popularly known as Mandal case.
“The 2018 Act as amended in 2019 granting reservation for Maratha community does not make out any exceptional circumstance to exceed the ceiling limit of 50% reservation,” it said.
Neither the Gaikwad Commission report nor the judgment of the Bombay High Court made out an extraordinary situation in the case of Marathas so as to exceed the ceiling of 50%, it noted.
The Act violated the principles of equality and exceeding the ceiling limit of 50 per cent clearly violated Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, said the Bench which also included Justices L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat.
Tye Bench refused to refer to a larger Bench the top court’s verdict in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India that laid down the 50% ceiling on reservation, saying it was a good law that had been repeatedly followed by the top court and has received approved by at least four Constitution Benches.
While upholding the reservation for OBCs, a nine-judge Constitution Bench had in its 1992 Mandal case verdict put a 50% ceiling on quota in government jobs and declared reservations in promotions unconstitutional. It had also made it mandatory to exclude the creamy layer among OBCs while giving the benefit of reservation to them.
The top court had on September 9 stayed the implementation of the legislation and referred to a larger bench the batch of pleas challenging the validity of the law, but made it clear that the status of those who have availed of the benefits would not be disturbed.
The Bombay High Court, while upholding the law in June 2019, had held that 16 per cent reservation was not justifiable and the quota should not exceed 12 per cent in employment and 13 per cent in admissions.
The high court had said that the 50-per-cent cap on total reservations imposed by the Supreme Court could be exceeded in exceptional circumstances.
