Maharashtra govt appoints Sunil Shukre as new MSBCC chairperson

Shukre played the role of mediator to persuade Maratha activist Jarange Patil to end his hunger strike last month

State govt appoints Sunil Shukre as new MSBCC chairperson

Bombay High Court (Retired) Judge Sunil Shukre

The state government appointed Bombay High Court (Retired) Judge Sunil Shukre as the chairperson of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC). The decision was necessitated following the resignation of the MSBCC chairperson Justice (Retired) Anand Nirgude on Tuesday. The state government took a prompt decision amidst growing attack from the opposition parties in the ongoing winter session of state legislative assembly at Nagpur.

Last month Judge (Retd) Sunil Shukre came into the limelight when he was chosen by the state government to be a part of the seven member delegation that played a significant role in holding talks with Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil who was on a nine-day hunger strike at his native village Antarwali Sarati in Jalna district in Maharashtra’s Marathwada region.

Shukre’s presence in the delegation came as a surprise to many.

Apart from Shukre, another retired Judge Bombay High Court and former MSBCC chairperson M G Gaikwad was also chosen to negotiate with Jarange Patil. Others in the delegation included cabinet ministers Dhananjay Munde, Atul Save, Uday Samant, Subhash Bhamre. The Prahar Jan Shakti president and chairman of Divjany Cell (cabinet rank) Bacchu Kadu was also in the team.

The CM Eknath Shinde-led coalition government deputed Shukre to talk about the legal and technical aspects of the Maratha reservation with Jarange Patil who was on protest.

Shukre retired from Bombay High Court in October 2023. Within a month he was roped in by state government and entrusted with the complex task of Maratha reservation. The MSBCC has to come out with empirical data and also establish the backwardness of the Maratha community. The task entails conducting surveys to ascertain the socio-economic and educational backwardness of the politically dominant Maratha community. The Marathas account for 33 per cent of the state population.

A graduate from Pune University (1980), Shukre did his LLB from Dr Punjabrao Deshmukh Law College, Amravati, affiliated with the then Nagpur University and completed his LL.M in Constitutional Law from the same university. In the past, he has worked as principal district judge Kolhapur, Registrar (Administration), Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court; joint director of Maharashtra Judicial Academy, Uttan, Thane; Principal district Judge in Nagpur and took charge as Registrar General of the Bombay High Court in March 2011. He was elevated to the position of Judge in the Bombay High Court in 2013.

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Earlier, Jarange Patil had given the state government a December 25, 2023 deadline to provide a solution to Maratha quota problems.

However, MSBCC suffered a setback as chairperson Nirgude resigned on Tuesday. Earlier, two commission members Balaji Killarikar and Laxman Hake had tendered their resignation citing pressure and interference from the state government in the MSBCC’s functioning.

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