Plea before Bombay High Court against State's decision to scrap 5% Muslim quota

A Mumbai-based lawyer has approached the Bombay High Court against the Maharashtra government’s February 17 decision scrapping 5% reservation in education for socially and educationally backward classes (SEBC) among Muslims in the state [Syed Eijas Abbas Naqvi v. State of Maharashtra & Ors.]

The plea has alleged that the move is deliberate, arbitrary and amounts to discrimination against minorities.

The petition, filed by advocate Syed Ejaz Abbas Naqvi through advocate Nitin Satpute, says the decision violates constitutional principles, ignores binding court rulings and infringes the fundamental rights of Muslim students. 

The February 17 government resolution (GR) issued by the Social Justice Department formally cancelled a July 2014 GR that had allowed around 50 identified Muslim communities to obtain caste verification and validity certificates under the Special Backward Category-A (SBC-A), a subset of the SEBC framework. 

The plea asserts that neither had any individual complained to the State Backwards Class Commission about the Muslim SEBC quota nor was anyone adversely affected by it.

The controversy traces back to July 2014, when the then Congress-NCP government announced 16% reservation for Marathas and 5% for Muslims from specified Muslim castes in government jobs and education under the SEBC category. 

In a November 2014, the Bombay High Court struck down the Maratha quota but upheld 5% reservation for Muslims in government and government-funded educational institutions. 

The Court held there was sufficient quantifiable data to classify about 50 Muslim sub-communities as a special backward class, but restricted the benefit to government and aided institutions and declined to permit any breach of the 50% ceiling in public employment.

The 2014 ordinance later lapsed on December 23, 2014 and was never converted into a permanent statute after the BJP-led government came to power, rendering the policy ineffective. 

According to Naqvi’s plea, the February 17 decision to cancel the 2014 GR is a populist step taken without legal basis or fresh data despite earlier judicial recognition of backwardness among specified Muslim communities. 

Further, according to the petitioner, the State’s allocation of over ₹350 crore annually for madrasa education withholds Muslims from mainstream, modern education and “limits young minds in the dark Taliban ages”.

The petition is likely to be heard in due course.