The Supreme Court will take up on Wednesday the curative petition filed by the Maharashtra government, challenging the court’s decision to strike down Maratha quota. A curative petition is the last recourse open to a petitioner after the review petition is dismissed. On May 5, 2021, a five-judge Constitution Bench of the SC had struck down the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2018, which provided reservation to the Maratha community for admission in educational institutions and government jobs. Saying that “no extraordinary circumstances were made out in granting” the “separate reservation. by exceeding the 50 per cent ceiling limit of reservation..” set by the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgment, the court had said the law “clearly violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution which makes (it) ultra vires”.
