The Bombay High Court’s staying of the decision of Maharashtra’s erstwhile Congress-NCP government to reserve jobs for Marathas and Muslims should be a lesson for political parties that routinely wield quotas in an attempt to win votes. The move was clearly timed to be a pre-election sop — an ordinance was issued — but it evidently didn’t help the incumbent parties in the assembly election that followed.
And now, the court has rejected the two main claims the government had made to justify its decision — that the Marathas are a socially, economically and educationally backward community and that it had “compelling and quantifiable data” to say so. Predictably, in its own bid to ingratiate itself with an influential community, the newly elected Devendra Fadnavis government is set to appeal against the stay. But it would do well to first make sure that it has the requisite evidence to support the claim.
Reservations must be judiciously applied in consultation with institutions like the National Commission for Backward Classes and in accordance with the Supreme Court’s directives. When parties act in bad faith and short circuit due process, they end up losing credibility without winning over the groups they seek to target.
