Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday, turned down the petition filed by a group of Bachelors in Medicine and Bachelors in Surgery (MBBS) aspirants, who sought staying of the ongoing admission process to the medical and dental courses for the current academic year, under the Maratha quota. This now allows Maharashtra government to admit students from the Maratha community under the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) law.
A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Gautam Patel is yet to pass a detailed order, however, orally dismissed the petition. This comes after senior counsel V A Thorat, appearing for the government told the judges that the decision, challenged by the students, was a policy decision. Appearing for these students, advocate M P Vashi argued that the SEBC law was passed in November 2018, which is way before the admissions for the present academic year commenced.
He argued, the government cannot apply the Maratha quota to the current academic year. The arguments were advanced on the premise that the government has notified through a resolution that it would apply the Maratha quota for present admissions in the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in medicine and dental. The government’s original decision to grant 16 per cent reservation in education and public service was amended recently by reducing the quota to 13 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. The decision was taken after a bench led by Justice Ranjit More upheld the reservation to Marathas, last month.
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