The Supreme Court has asked the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court to constitute a bench and urgently hear a batch of petitions challenging the 10% reservation granted to the Maratha community..The direction came in a writ petition by students appearing for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) undergraduate and postgraduate exams of 2025. They argued that the delay in adjudication of the matter was adversely impacting their right to fair and equal consideration in the ongoing admission process..A Bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih did not entertain the petition on merits in view of similar challenges already pending before the Bombay High Court. However, it took note of the academic urgency raised by the petitioners.The Court thus asked the High Court to consider the issue of interim relief at the earliest, in light of the potential impact on thousands of students..The petitioners submitted that although arguments before the Bombay High Court had concluded in April, the matter has not been listed since the transfer of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya to Delhi. .The plea, filed by NEET aspirant Diya Ramesh Rathi and two other parents of students, challenges the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Act, 2024, which reintroduces 10% reservation for the Maratha community in education and public employment. Relying heavily on the Constitution Bench judgment in Jaishri Laxmanrao Patil v. State of Maharashtra (2021), which had struck down a similar law on the ground that the Maratha community is not a socially or educationally backward class, the petitioners argued that the new Act is a blatant attempt to override settled law..The plea characterises the new law as manifestly arbitrary, politically motivated and violative of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution.The petitioners have thus prayed for a stay on the implementation of the Act, or at the very least, its exclusion from the NEET 2025 admission process to prevent irreversible harm to open category students.With counselling and seat allocation set to commence soon, the petition submits that inaction would result in an unconstitutional reservation regime affecting admissions across the State.Senior Advocate Ravi K Deshpande and Advocate Ashwin Deshpande appeared for the petitioners.
