Ordinance Route Among Options For Maratha Quota, Said Ashok Chavan (FILE)
Maharashtra PWD minister Ashok Chavan on Thursday said the state government is working on three options, including promulgating an ordinance, regarding implementation of the Maratha jobs quota whose operation has been stayed by the Supreme Court in an interim ruling.
A final decision on ordinance route and other options will be taken in a day or two, said Mr Chavan, a leader of the Congress, an ally in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government, while addressing a press meet at Nanded in central Maharashtra.
Mr Chavan, who heads the cabinet sub-committee on the Maratha quota, said there is also a proposal to file a recall application before the three-member SC bench that gave the ruling and move the Constitution bench to vacate the interim stay on operation of the 2018 reservation law.
Describing the SC's interim order staying the implementation of the Maratha quota in jobs and education as "unexpected and surprising", Mr Chavan said the law had been unanimously passed by the state legislature.
The quota law was drafted after taking into account recommendations of the State Backward Class Commission and its constitutional validity had been upheld by the Bombay High Court, the former chief minister said.
"The MVA government did not even change the legal team set up by the previous (BJP) government," he said.
Mr Chavan said Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will announce the stand of the state government on the Maratha reservation issue in a day or two.
"The government is also exploring other avenues of how to provide relief to Marathas in jobs and admissions," he said.
Mr Chavan said some organisations protested outside his home in Nanded and later met him over the quota issue.
"I told them that the interim stay on implementation of the quota has to be challenged legally and not on the streets.
"If they have better legal counsel, they can hire their services. The government is doing all it can to ensure justice to Marathas," Mr Chavan added.
He said the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota law has been challenged in the SC and reservation cases related to Tamil Nadu, Tripura and other North Eastern states are also pending in the top court for several years and no stay has been given on them.
"If the Maharashtra government is in favour of the quota, why protest on the streets?" Mr Chavan asked.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)