NEW DELHI, March 24: The state government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that reservation beyond 50 per cent in the state is justified considering its extraordinary situations, peculiar features and indigenous population of over 85 per cent.
Meghalaya, which comes under the Sixth Schedule, is an exception and there has been issue ) concerning reservation, the Advocate General (AG) of the state, Amit Kumar, told the Apex Court during a hearing on the Indra Sawhney case.
Kumar, along with Standing Counsel Avijit Mani Tripathi, appearing for the state, maintained that Meghalaya falls under the exception and satisfies the requirement of extraordinary situations as contemplated in the Indra Sawhney Judgment.
The AG further submitted that the reservation policy of the state which is being followed since 1972, is working well for the hill state.
The Apex Court is hearing petitions challenging the validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which extended a 16% reservation for the Maratha community on a daily basis.
The Supreme Court has decided to hear all states in the matter, after a question of whether the Indra Sawhney case should be reconsidered had cropped up.
This case puts a 50% cap on the reservation, permissible for backward classes, and the final hearings on the matter had commenced on March 15. Top notch lawyers, such as Mukul Rohatagi, Shekhar Naphade and Kapil Sibal are arguing in the case on behalf of different states.
The pleas before the Constitution Bench challenges the Bombay High Court judgment passed in June 2019, and submits that the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018, which provides for 12% and 13% quota to the Maratha community in education and employment, violated the principles laid in the case of Indira Sawhney VS Union of India (1992), according to which the Apex Court capped the reservation limit at 50%.
