On Wednesday, the Supreme Court has passed an interim order staying the use of Maratha quota for reservations in government jobs and college admissions this year. Thus, SC has referred the matter to a larger bench.
As per the latest news coming from the media reports, there will be no Maratha quota for college admissions this year and for government jobs, says Supreme Court.
However, the larger bench will now determine the validity of Maratha quota for reservations in government jobs and college admissions.
A bench of five or more justices will now hear the case which will decide on the validity of the Maratha quota for reservations. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde will take a call on the larger bench.
The final decision on this will be taken only after the larger bench gives a verdict in the matter. The SC court also stated that PG admissions will not be affected by its interim order.
On August 28, the apex court heard arguments with respect to reference to an 11-Judge Bench. The case involved whether the State had the right to exceed the 50% reservation cap, as dictated by a 9-Judge Bench in the case of Indira Sawhney.
A Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S. Ravindra Bhat heard the matter as Senior Advocates Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Rafique Dada and Paramjit Patwalia argued in favour of the reference, and Senior Advocates Arvind Datar, Shyam Divan, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Pradeep Sancheti, BH Marlapalle and Siddharth Bhatnagar argued against the same.
