An advocate supporting the Maratha reservation told the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that the M.G. Gaikwad Commission report submitted to the State is the most reliable one on the subject, and highlights the community’s educational backwardness.
The nine-member Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission headed by Justice M.G. Gaikwad, in its 1,035-page report which was submitted to the government in November 2018, has taken into consideration various parameters to recommend reservation for the Marathas.
On the basis of the report, the State legislature, on November 30, 2018, passed a bill giving 16% reservation in government jobs and education to the Marathas, declared as a ‘socially and educationally backward class’.
The Commission has observed that while the earlier Khatri Commission had recommended the inclusion of Maratha-Kunbi and Kunbi-Maratha in the list of Other Backward Classes (OBC) as a sub-caste of Kunbi, it had not recommended the inclusion of Marathas in the list. It said the Bapat Commission too was against the inclusion of the Maratha community in the OBC category, which the Maharashtra government did not accept. In April 1942, a government resolution was issued by the then Government of Bombay with a list of Backward Classes, which included the Maratha community for the purpose of education, the report said. But in 1950, when the Central government prepared a list of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs, the Maratha community disappeared from the list, the Commission said.
Advocate Aarif Bookwala represented the petitioner, advocate Vaibhav Kadam, before a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre. The bench has been hearing a bunch of petitions for and against the reservation since the beginning of February.
Mr. Bookwala said, the Gaikwad Commission has considered all the reports on Maratha reservation. The mechanism adopted while conducting the survey has followed all the Supreme Court guidelines and has adhered to every aspect of the law. It is therefore the most reliable one, he said.
