Mumbai: At a time when the Eknath Shinde-led Maharashtra authorities is struggling to deal with the Maratha agitations over quota, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Fee, a quasi-judicial physique that decides on the inclusion and exclusion of castes for a quota, is crumbling.
Following the resignations of two members citing “government interference” within the work of the fee that’s speculated to be unbiased, the chairman of the fee, Anand Nirgude, a former choose on the Bombay Excessive Courtroom, has additionally tendered his resignation with out citing any cause.
Earlier, Balaji Killarikar, a practising advocate on the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay Excessive Courtroom, and Laxman Hake, an activist from the Different Backward Lessons (OBC), resigned over variations with another fee members and the state authorities over how you can go about ascertaining the social and financial backwardness of the Marathas, who’ve been protesting for reservation in authorities jobs and training.
Nirgude resigned on 4 December, after the resignations of Hake and Killarikar. The Maharashtra authorities conveyed his resignation and the state authorities’s acceptance of it to the member secretary of the Maharashtra State Backward Class Fee on 9 December. ThePrint has seen a replica of each letters.
In his resignation letter, Nirgude merely stated: “I hereby tender my resignation as chairperson of the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes. I express my gratitude for giving me this opportunity to work in this position.”
When contacted by ThePrint, Nirgude stated he didn’t want to remark.
Maharashtra chief secretary Manoj Saunik didn’t reply to ThePrint’s name and textual content message.
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Spate of resignations
The spate of resignations come after the Shinde-led authorities wrote a letter to the fee on 13 November with “terms of reference” to work on figuring out the social and financial backwardness of the Maratha group.
Killarikar and Hake stated they had been in favour of an all-caste socioeconomic survey in Maharashtra, whereas the state authorities needed a restricted speedy survey of simply Marathas.
Furthermore, Killarikar stated he was additionally towards ideas of utilizing completely different parameters to show the social and financial backwardness of Marathas, saying it could be “discriminatory” as many different instances for reservation have been determined by the fee on the idea of the prevailing parameters.
In an announcement on WhatsApp Tuesday, Killarikar stated Nirgude’s resignation was additionally because of the authorities’s interference.
“Due to the increasing interference and pressure by Chandrakant Patil, the head of the ministerial group formed for (Maratha) reservation, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and head of the state’s advisory board (for Maratha reservation) retired judge Dilip Bhosale, members of the State Backward Class Commission and now even the chairman have preferred to tender their resignations,” he wrote.
Marathas, who kind an estimated 33 % of Maharashtra’s inhabitants, have periodically protested for reservation in authorities jobs and academic establishments of the state.
In 2021, the Supreme Courtroom had rejected a report on the social and financial backwardness of the Marathas submitted by the fee’s former chairman, Justice M.G. Gaikwad (retd), and struck down the quota given to Marathas underneath the ‘socially and educationally backward class’ as “unconstitutional”.
Earlier this yr — confronted with the newest spherical of protests simply forward of the 2024 elections — the Maharashtra authorities filed a healing petition to get the SC to rethink its resolution.
In October this yr, the Maharashtra authorities introduced it could grant Kunbi certificates — Kunbis are a Maratha sub-caste group who’re counted among the many state’s OBCs — to Marathas to make sure the group is counted among the many state’s different backward lessons. The transfer sparked yet one more row, with Maharashtra’s different OBC teams elevating considerations.
In the meantime, Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil, who’s been on the centre of the contemporary Maratha protests, has reportedly warned the Shinde authorities towards lacking its 24 December deadline to grant reservation.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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