PIL in Bombay HC challenges government decision to give Kunbi certificates to Marathas

It also challenged the constitution of the Justice (retired) Sandeep Shinde committee, formed to study the procedure of giving Kunbi (OBC) certificate to Marathas and the report the panel submitted to the government.

The gazette notification issued by the state social justice department on Friday night sought to amend the Maharashtra Scheduled Castes, Denotified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Other Backward Classes & Special Backward Category (Regulation of Issuance and Verification of) Caste Certificate Rules, 2012. These rules prescribe norms and regulations for issuance and verification of caste certificates to people belonging to various categories.

The notification issued on January 26 provides a draft of rules to be amended as per demands of Manoj Jarange-Patil-led Maratha protestors and the government will consider them after inviting suggestions and objections from people likely to be affected by its decision by February 16.

The petitioner claimed that earlier, the process of granting Kunbi certificate to the Maratha community was difficult but now with every agitation, a new decision is issued and the process is being eased. This is done just to ensure that every Maratha person gets a Kunbi certificate “through backdoor entry”, it adds.

The PIL also claimed that the Supreme Court had in 2021 struck down the Maratha reservation in education and public employment granted through the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2018. “Now the government by including Marathas in OBC is eating into the share of the OBC,” it claimed.

“The list of castes included in the OBC classes has time and again undergone a lot of changes without giving any justification, much less any data for the same. It therefore shows that the list is more of a convenience and that the communities included in the Maratha-Kunbi/Kunbi-Maratha are not in far-flung and remote areas and/or being out of the mainstream of national life and there are conditions peculiar to them and/or there are no exceptional or extraordinary condition that can be attributed to them,” the PIL stated.

As per the high court website, the PIL is likely to come up for hearing on February 6 before a bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya.

Even as the Maratha community awaits the finalisation of rules, the communities under OBC fear a shrinking of their 19 per cent reservation pie. While the proposed formulation does not tinker with the 50 per cent limit set by the Supreme Court, it allows Marathas to claim reservation under the quota set aside for OBCs, which will not only be applicable for education and public employment but also OBC-reserved seats in local civic bodies.