Centre Lost Golden Opportunity To Facilitate Maratha Reservation: Ashok Chavan

Congress leader and Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Ashok Chavan on Tuesday said that the Central government missed a “golden opportunity” of initiating Maratha reservation by relaxing the 50 percent quota limit when it passed the 127th Constitution Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha.

The bill restores the powers of the state governments to prepare their own list of other backward classes (OBCs).

“The Central government, today, had a golden opportunity to facilitate the legal battle of #MarathaReservation by removing the 50 percent ceiling on the reservation limit while passing the 127th constitutional amendment bill. But, the government has missed this opportunity,” Chavan tweeted.

While welcoming the steps of re-granting the authority to states and Union Territories of identifying backward communities in their jurisdiction, Chavan said it won’t be enough to provide reservation to the Maratha community as the 50 percent ceiling for quota still exists.

The Supreme Court on May 5 this year declared the state government’s reservation law for Maratha community as “unconstitutional” saying the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act of 2018 violates the 50 percent limit set by the court in its 1992 judgment.

https://twitter.com/AshokChavanINC/status/1425133655073062916?s=20

The top court also noted that there was no “extraordinary situation” for which the Maharashtra government needed to break the 50 percent reservation limit to provide quota for the Marathas.

Chavan said that the Central government could have easily overcome the SC ruling by increasing the 50 percent reservation limit in the 127th Constitution Amendment Bill.

The former Maharashtra Chief Minister also questioned the silence of state BJP MPs in Lok Sabha during the passage of the bill, saying no one except Pritam Munde spoke in favour of Maratha reservation.

On the other hand, the Central government has said that it will consider in future to remove the reservation limit.

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