The State government has filed a caveat in the Supreme Court and the High Court to avoid an ex parte stay on the ordinance adopted by it to pave way for admission to 250 Maratha students in postgraduate medical and dental courses.
The State government had adopted an Ordinance to give 16 percent reservation in post-graduate medical courses from this year to the Marathas and other communities coming under the Socially and Educationally Backward Class (SEBC) Act. However, possibilities are high that the group of students and parents staging protest against this ordinance may challenge its validity in the Supreme Court or Bombay High Court. If this happens then State government would not be able to issue any interim order. To avoid this situation, a caveat has been filed in the Bombay, Aurangabad and Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court along with the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the State government’s counsel Nishant Katnesharkar has informed that a writ petition challenging this ordinance has been filed in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had earlier upheld the High Court verdict and barred the State government from allowing admission under SEBC quota in post graduate medical and dental courses.
The State cabinet had on Friday cleared the ordinance to amend the SEBC Act 2018 to implement a quota provision to admit Maratha students into medical postgraduate courses this year. Several post-graduate medical students were sitting on a protest at the Azad Maidan here for the last two weeks, after the Bombay High Court earlier this month ruled that the 16 per cent quota offered to Marathas will not be applicable on admissions to post-graduate (PG) medical courses this year, withdrew their protest on Tuesday after the Maharashtra governor signed an ordinance to provide quota to the Maratha community members under the Socially and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) category.