The thought of reservations for underprivileged Muslims in Maharashtra will not be new. Within the mid-2000s, nationwide and state commissions documented the structural boundaries going through Muslim communities. The Sachar Fee, headed by former Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar of the Delhi Excessive Court docket, submitted a report on the social, financial and academic state of affairs of India’s Muslim group in November 2006. The fee discovered that Muslims carried out under the nationwide common in key socio-economic indicators comparable to training, employment, and entry to sources.
The report discovered that Maharashtra has a low share of presidency jobs and an over-representation of jail inmates in comparison with its inhabitants proportion.
Based mostly on this, the Maharashtra authorities in 2008 appointed a committee headed by Dr Mehmood-ur-Rehman, a former IAS officer, to review the socio-economic state of affairs of Muslims within the state. The fee submitted a report in 2013 reaffirming Sakar’s findings and offering extra detailed proof of instructional and financial disparities.
Based mostly on these research, the then Congress authorities in Maharashtra launched the Maharashtra Reservation Ordinance in 2014, simply earlier than that 12 months’s meeting elections.
The ordinance created a brand new class known as Particular Backward Class A (SBC-A). This included almost 50 Muslim subgroups eligible for a 5 p.c reservation in authorities jobs and admission to authorities and government-aided instructional establishments.
In June 2014, earlier than the ordinance was handed, Vinod Tawde, then the chief of the opposition BJP within the Maharashtra Legislative Meeting, criticized the efforts of the Congress and NCP governments.
“We don’t assist reservations based mostly on faith and the Structure doesn’t permit for this,” he stated.
At the moment, the undivided Shiv Sena kept away from taking a stand on the difficulty.
“The quota for Muslims will not be based mostly on faith however on standards of social and financial backwardness,” stated then-Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chawan, including, “If somebody approaches the court docket, we’ll clarify our place.”
In 2015, after the ordinance lapsed with out changing into legislation, former state Congress working committee member Naseem Khan labeled the Bharatiya Janata Occasion authorities as “anti-Muslim”.
“The CM ought to have labored in direction of changing the ordinance right into a invoice or issuing a brand new ordinance. As no motion was taken, the ordinance lapsed. Any more, there will probably be no reservation for Muslims in instructional establishments,” he stated.
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judicial constraints
This coverage instantly confronted authorized challenges. The petitioners argued that the general reservation occupancy within the state of Maharashtra is already over 50 per cent, a ceiling set by the Supreme Court docket of India in its landmark Indra Sawhney v. Union of India judgment, often known as the Mandal Fee case. They argued that quotas favoring specific spiritual communities have been additionally constitutionally questionable.
In Shri Sanjeet Shukla v. State of Maharashtra and three Ors, the Bombay Excessive Court docket, in an interim order dated November 14, 2014, assessed the constitutionality of two ordinances issued by the State. The then Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohit S Shah and Justice MS Sonak was listening to petitions difficult the Maharashtra Ordinance No.
Relating to reservations for Muslim teams, the court docket referred to the Sakar Committee report and Dr Mehmood-ur-Rehman’s findings and located the report back to be based mostly on proof. It identified that the report presents “distinctive circumstances within the problem of training” and permits for the provisional continuation of the 5% reservation in instructional admissions, however doesn’t give ultimate constitutional approval.
The court docket additionally emphasised that the state can’t exceed the 50% cap on public employment, even assuming that the Muslim group involved is “backward”. Subsequently, the ordinance was allowed to function solely provisionally within the training sector, whereas within the public employment sector it was suspended till ultimate public listening to.
Quoting Indra Sawhney, the Supreme Court docket bench reiterated that reservations “shouldn’t usually exceed 50%” and that this restrict can solely be exceeded in particular circumstances supported by quantifiable information. The report concluded that whereas restricted aid could also be granted when it comes to instructional admissions, even minority communities thought of to be ‘backwards’ won’t be able to interrupt by way of the ’50 per cent ceiling’ when it comes to public employment.
it is by no means a legislation
A proposal to present 5 per cent reservation to sure Muslim communities in Maharashtra didn’t change into a binding legislation. The primary cause for that is that the proposal was launched by ordinance fairly than a legislation handed by the state legislature, and the ordinance expired after the change of presidency on the finish of 2014.
Ordinances are momentary administrative measures that should be changed by laws inside a sure time frame. As soon as the state parliament reconvenes, the federal government can have as much as six weeks to move the ordinance in each homes of parliament. If this isn’t carried out, the ordinance will routinely lapse.
In Maharashtra, the federal government modified fingers after the 2014 elections. The Congress and NCP misplaced energy and the incoming BJP-led authorities took no motion to show the ordinance into legislation. This left authorized and administrative uncertainty.
Moreover, the Excessive Court docket’s order was interim and the difficulty was not lastly resolved. And not using a ultimate ruling affirming the coverage or a brand new legislation amending the coverage inside the Structure, the quota would stay legally unsure and would by no means materialize into a completely functioning everlasting reservation framework.
politics and reservations
Politically, the measure lacked continuity and consensus. The Bharatiya Janata Occasion-led authorities below Devendra Fadnavis maintained that religion-based reservations have been constitutionally unacceptable and that any affirmative motion measures should be strictly rooted in backwardness standards inside the current constitutional framework.
In 2018, the undivided Shiv Sena joined the Congress-NCP refrain in insisting on Muslim quotas in a standoff with its then ally the BJP.
In November 2018, Sunil Prabhu, then chief of the Congress celebration in Maharashtra, advised ThePrint, “Muslims are part of this nation. They’ve been demanding reservations for the betterment of their communities. If Shiv Sena is lending its voice to their calls for for higher alternatives for the poor and downtrodden, what’s incorrect with that?”
Trying again on the 2014 proposal, Devendra Fadnavis, then Chief of Opposition within the state meeting, stated in 2020, “The fundamental premise on which the Congress-NCP authorities gave reservations to Muslims has been shaken. There have been two variations: both the quota was permissible in each employment and training, or it was legally and constitutionally legitimate. If the legislation doesn’t meet these circumstances, it is going to by no means be accepted.”
On February 17, 2026, greater than a decade after the unique ordinance, the Mahayuti authorities issued a brand new Authorities Decision (GR), formally revoking all earlier choices and notifications associated to the 2014 Muslim Quota Framework and ending the issuance of caste certificates and validity certificates below the now-defunct SBC-A class.
Imtiaz Jaleel, president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) celebration in Maharashtra, advised X on Wednesday, “The Authorities of Maharashtra will take away the 5% reservation in training and provides the present of Ramadan to Muslims. This comes after the HC identified that the dropout price in training is the best amongst Muslims. But, we’ll inform our girls and boys to not give up their training. From Padenga India to Badega India!”
Former state Congress working committee member Naseem Khan alleged that the ruling Mahayuti alliance had dedicated fraud. Talking to reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday, Khan stated, “Subsequent Devendra Fadnavis governments didn’t proceed and full legislative assist was by no means secured even after the Bombay Excessive Court docket granted interim aid to five% of training reservation.”
Pyare Khan, chairman of the Maharashtra State Minorities Fee, advised ANI, “The earlier authorities didn’t give any (reservations) in any respect. The earlier authorities had simply enacted an ordinance. The place has it been applied as a legislation?”
He additional requested, “If it had been applied, the reservation wouldn’t have been cancelled, and the federal government did nothing. The Maharashtra Social Justice Division is following regular procedures.”
“The Sachar and Mehmood-ur-Rehman experiences point out the state of affairs of Muslims at the moment. If the state of affairs was this unhealthy then, they need to have labored then. However at the moment they have been solely targeted on politics and vote-gathering. The place did they work to uplift Muslims?” he added.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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