[BREAKING] Supreme Court Constitution Bench to pronounce judgment tomorrow in Maratha Reservation case

The Supreme Court will pronounce its judgment tomorrow in the batch of petitions challenging the validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which extends reservation to the Maratha community in in public education and employment (Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. Chief Minister)..The judgment will be delivered by a Constitution bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, L Nageswara Rao, S Abdul Nazeer, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat. Justices Bhushan, Rao, Gupta and Bhat would be giving separate judgments as per the causelist on the Supreme Court website. .The Court had reserved its judgment in the matter on March 26, 2021..The Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which enacted providing for 16 percent reservation for the Maratha community in educational institutions and government employment. In June 2019, the Bombay High Court had upheld the validity of the law but reduced the quota to 12 per cent in admissions to educational institutions and 13 per cent in jobs.Appeals were filed before the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict. The top court decided to hear all States in the matter, after a question of whether the 1992 judgment of the top court in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India should be reconsidered cropped up. A nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had in Indra Sawhney held that Article 16(4) of the Constitution does not confer reservation in promotions, but only reservation in appointments. It was also held that the ceiling of 50 per cent in reservations cannot be breached.Various States governments including Maharashtra government had urged the Supreme Court to reconsider Indra Sawhney saying that there was considerable divergence in views among the judges on the Bench in Indra Sawhney and the 50 percent cap was decided without cogent data. Since, Indra Sawhney was decided by a nine-judge Bench, they had asked for referring the case to a Bench of eleven judges. .Final hearings in the matter had commenced on March 15, 2021. To read accounts of the hearings on Day 1 and Day 2 click here and here. To read Day 3 arguments, click here. Attorney General KK Venugopal completed putting forward his views on the issue on Day 4. Read an account of Day 5 here, an account of Day 6 here and an account of Day 7 here. An account of Day 8 can be read here and an account of Day 9 hearing can be read here.Live updates from the final day can be read here.