Abhijeet Sidh & Shubham Sharma, Lloyd Law College, Noida
BENCH: Ashok Bhushan, J., S.A. Nazeer, J., L. Nageswara Rao, J., Hemant Gupta J., and S. Ravindra Bhat, J.
CASE NUMBER: SLP (C) 15737/2019
PETITIONER: Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil; Youth for Equality; Dr. Amita Lalit Gugale; Sanjeet Shukla; Uday Govindraj Dhopale; Mohammad Sayeed Noori Shafi Ahmed; Sagar Damodar Sarda; Vishnuji P. Mishra; Kamalakar Sukhdeo Darode; Ruchita Jiten Kulkarni; Devendra Roopchand Jain; Aditya Bimal Shastri; Rajesh A Tekale; Deshmukh Esha Girish; Shiv Sangram; Krishnaji Dattatrya More; Madhushri Nandkishor Jethliya RESPONDENT: Chief Minister, Maharashtra; Chief Secretary, Maharashtra; Maharashtra State Public Services Commission; Vinod Narayan Patil; Union of India; State of Jharkhand; State of Bihar; State of Rajasthan; State of Andhra Pradesh; State of Tamil Nadu; State of Karnataka; State of Chhattisgarh; State of Karnataka; State of Kerala; State of Haryana; State of Meghalaya; State of Uttarakhand; State of Uttar Pradesh; State of Assam PETITIONER LAWYERS: Arvind Datar; Gopal Sankaranarayanan; Shyam Divan; Siddharth Bhatnagar; Pradeep Sancheti; Shriram Pingle; Dr. Rajeev Dhavan; BH Marlapalle; Dr. Gunratan Sadavarate; SB Talekar; RK Deshpande; Amit Anand Tiwari.
BACKGROUND: On 9 July 2014, the state of Maharashtra promulgated a law that provided a 16% reservation for education and public employment in the Maratha community. On November 14, 2014, the Bombay High Court issued an interim order to enforce the law. The interim decision was overturned by the High Court on December 18, 2014. Subsequently, Maharashtra enacted the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2014. This provided a 16% reservation for retrospective academic and social classes, where the Maratha community was counted. On April 7, 2016, the Bombay High Court suspended the implementation of the Act due to its compliance with the law. On January 4, 2017, the Maharashtra national government issued a notice establishing the Maharashtra Region Backward Commission. The Commission, led by Justice Gaikwad, recommended Maratha's 12% and 13% reservations at educational institutions and public service appointments, respectively. Following the recommendations of the Commission, Maharashtra passed the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018 on November 29, 2018. The legitimacy of the Constitution was challenged before the Bombay High Court by three leading appeals, as well as other writ petitions.
