Reservation for Marathas?

In 1992 in the Indira Sahani and Others vs Government of India case, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that the centre and states must appoint constitutional commissions which would be expected to perform two duties: (1) Redressal of grievances of castes from taking the state Other Backward Classes (OBC) list into account; and (2) looking into the exclusion of castes from the OBC list and recommending inclusion of new castes to the government.

The Court also clarified that these commissions should be established under Sections 15(4), 16(4) and 340 of the Constitution and their recommendations would be binding upon the central and state governments. This means that no government can reject the recommendations and reports of the State Backward Class Commissions unilaterally. Pursuant to the SC’s directions, the Maharashtra government appointed a standing committee on 15 March 1993 which later became the State Backward Class Commission (henceforth, the commission). As of now the commission has submitted nine reports and has also said that there can be no reservations for the Maratha community.