MARATHA RESERVATION AND THE CONSTITUTION: NAVIGATING THE LINE BETWEEN EQUITY AND POLITICS

AUTHOR – JAGDISH WAMANRAO KHOBRAGADE* & ANUJ KHANDARE**

* ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF LAW AT MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY NAGPUR

** ADVOCATE, SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

BEST CITATION – JAGDISH WAMANRAO KHOBRAGADE & ANUJ KHANDARE, MARATHA RESERVATION AND THE CONSTITUTION: NAVIGATING THE LINE BETWEEN EQUITY AND POLITICS, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (10) OF 2025, PG. 455-459, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344

Abstract

The recent enactment of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Bill, 2024, which grants a 10 percent reservation to the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions, has once again brought the contentious issue of caste-based reservations to the forefront of legal and political discourse in India. This legislation, supported by the Maharashtra Backward Class Commission seeks to address perceived socio-economic disadvantages within the Maratha community. However, it directly challenges the constitutional framework established by the Supreme Court in Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. State of Maharashtra (2021), where the Maratha quota was invalidated for breaching the 50 percent reservation cap laid down in the landmark judgment of Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992). This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the historical evolution of Maratha reservations, the constitutional limitations imposed by judicial precedents, and the implications of recent constitutional amendments, including the 102nd and 103rd Amendments. Further, it critically evaluates the political motivations behind extending reservations to socially and educationally progressive but electorally significant communities such as the Marathas, assessing the tension between the principles of social justice and equality of opportunity enshrined in Articles 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution. The study underscores the need for a nuanced and data-driven approach to affirmative action, ensuring that reservation policies serve their original purpose of uplifting historically marginalized groups without compromising constitutional safeguards or diluting the ethos of social equity..
Keywords: Maratha Reservation, Constitutional Validity, Fundamental Rights.