THE CENTRE has moved the Supreme Court seeking review of its ruling that after the 102nd amendment of the Constitution, only the President will have the power to identify and notify the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) in a state or Union Territory. Striking down the Maharashtra law providing reservation to the Maratha community, which took the total quota in the state beyond 50 per cent cap set by the court in its 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, a Supreme Court Constitution bench had on May 5 also upheld the 102nd constitutional amendment. But while three of the judges on the bench — Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat — concluded that only the President will have the power to identify backward classes in a state or Union Territory after the amendment, the other two judges – Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer — were of the view that it does not take away the power of states and UTs to identify backward classes. The judgment came on petitions challenging the June 27, 2019 order of the Bombay High Court upholding the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018.
