Will Mumbai High Court grant 12 percent allocation for Maratha students?

A group of students aspiring to enroll in the MBBS course has moved the Bombay High Court, opposing the Maharashtra government's decision to implement Maratha reservation for admissions to medical colleges from this year. The Bombay High Court's decision in the matter could influence the same type of reservation in other states too and could set precedence.

The petitioners argued Wednesday that 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 prior to that.

Therefore, the reservation could not be implemented in the current academic year, their lawyer M P Vashi argued before a division bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and G S Patel.

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

The bench is likely to continue the hearing on Thursday.

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

The high court, which upheld constitutional validity of the Maratha quota last month, said it should be cut down to 12 per cent.

Accordingly, the state government has passed a resolution to that effect.