Bombay High Court will begin fresh hearings on pleas challenging the 2024 Maratha reservation law from July 18. The interim order keeping admissions and jobs under review will continue till final verdict.
MUMBAI: Today, on June 11, the Bombay High Court announced on Wednesday that it will start hearing again the petitions that challenge the constitutional validity of the Maratha reservation law. The fresh hearings will begin on July 18, 2025.
This law, called the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2024, gives reservations to the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions.
Several public interest litigations (PILs) and other petitions have been filed in the High Court opposing this Act, raising concerns about its legality and its compliance with constitutional provisions.
A special three-judge bench has been formed to deal with this matter. The bench includes Justices Ravindra Ghuge, N J Jamadar, and Sandeep Marne.
This bench was set up last month specifically to hear all the PILs and petitions related to the Maratha quota issue.
The High Court clarified that it will not continue from where the earlier hearings ended, but instead will go through all the arguments and materials once again.
The court said that the matter needs to be heard “afresh”, meaning that everything will be reviewed from the beginning, even if it had been discussed before.
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An important part of the proceedings is an interim order that was passed by the court last year. According to this interim order, any admissions or job appointments made using the benefits of the new law will be temporary and subject to whatever final decision the court gives in this case.
The High Court said that
“the interim order passed last year, whereby applications for admissions to educational institutions or jobs at government authorities taking benefit of the impugned Act will be subject to further orders in the present proceedings shall continue.”
This means that the court has decided to keep this earlier temporary order in place until it gives a final judgment.
The Maratha reservation issue has been controversial and has led to multiple legal battles in the past. In 2021, the Supreme Court had struck down a similar law, saying it violated the 50% cap on reservations set by earlier court judgments.
However, the new Act passed in 2024 is the latest attempt by the Maharashtra government to provide reservations to the Maratha community under a revised legal framework.
The upcoming hearings from July 18 are expected to be important in deciding the future of Maratha reservation in the state.
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