Reservations about reservations

SC reiterates the basic principle of affirmative action

The Supreme Court’s judgment quashing a Maharashtra law that provided reservations in public jobs and educational institutions to the Maratha community marks an important step in the enduring controversy over the ambit of affirmative action in India. In 2018, the state government had passed the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, extending reservations to the Maratha community in public education and employment, which would take aggregate quotas over the 50 per cent mark. This law was enacted following the conclusions of a commission, which found that the Maratha community was socially and educationally backward and