Deepali Kalia
The Central government has filed a review petition in the Supreme Court against its decision with respect to the Maratha Reservation.
The petition challenges the majority view of its 5 judge constitution bench that only the Centre or President of India possess the power and not states under the article 102nd constitution amendment to identify and list Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and thus, the Maratha reservation drafted by the Maharashtra government was declared invalid.
On May 13, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in a statement “As provided in the Supreme Court Rules, 2013, a review petition for review of the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court has been filed by the Union of India on May 13, 2021.”
The constitution bench had delved into the question that whether the 102nd constitution amendment act of 2013, introduced by National Commission for Backward Classes restricted the discretionary power of the State Legislature to give benefit to the SEBC in their own region.
Justice Bhat, supported by Justices Hemant Gupta and L Nageswara Rao constituted the majority in holding that it was the President alone, to the exclusion of all the other authorities, who were empowered to identify SEBC and add them in the central list.
Justice Bhushan and Nazeer differed and held that states can identify their own SEBC.
