Bombay High Court dismisses MBBS aspirants' petition challenging Maratha quota

The petitioners said the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act came into force on November 30, 2018, while the admission process for MBBS and dental courses started before that.

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a group of students, aspiring to enrol in the MBBS course, against the Maharashtra government's decision to implement reservation for the Maratha community in admissions to medical colleges from this year.

A division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel, while dismissing the petition, said it would pass a reasoned order later.

The petitioners said the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act came into force on November 30, 2018, while the admission process for MBBS and dental courses started before that.

Therefore, the reservation could not be implemented in the current academic year, their lawyer M P Vashi argued.

Maharashtra government counsel V A Thorat said it was a policy decision to implement the reservation in the admission process of 2019-20.

The 2018 Act granted 16 per cent reservation to the Maratha community by creating the new category of SEBC.

But, another bench of the high court on June 27, while upholding the constitutional validity of the Act, asked the government to reduce the 16 per cent quota to 12 per cent for education and 13 per cent for jobs.

Read ALso: Maharashtra Legislative Assembly clears bill on Maratha Quota for PG Medical Admissions

In May this year, the state government issued an ordinance to provide reservation under Maratha quota for admissions to medical and dental undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the current academic year itself.

A couple weeks ago, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea challenging a Bombay High Court order which dismissed a petition against 16 per cent quota for Marathas in admission to postgraduate medical and dental courses.

"We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned order passed by the High Court as the admission process for the academic year 2019-20 has concluded on 17th June, 2019. The special leave petition is, accordingly, dismissed," the bench said.

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