Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC) chairperson Justice (retd) Anand Nirgude submitted his resignation from the post to the state government on December 4 and it was accepted on December 9, when the Winter Session of the state legislature was in progress. The state government, however, did not inform the legislature about the same.
The development follows the resignation of two members of the commission earlier this month. Balaji Killarikar and Laxman Hake had resigned, alleging “growing interference” of the state government in the functioning of the commission that has been looking into the issue of the backwardness of Marathas in the wake of the recent agitation for reservation for the community.
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Nirgude confirmed that his resignation had been accepted by the state government. “I do not want to comment any further. You can ask the government about everything else,” he told The Indian Express.
While Nirgude wrote to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on December 4 tendering his resignation, the Maharashtra government on December 9 conveyed to the member secretary of the Commission that the resignation has been accepted.
The Commission, a quasi-judicial authority, was asked by the Eknath Shinde-led government to “ascertain existence of exceptional circumstances and or extraordinary situations in the context of Maratha community justifying exceeding of the limit of 50% reservation as laid down in the judgements of the Supreme Court”.
The Terms of Reference (ToR), appended to a letter by Shinde to the MSBCC chairman on November 13 – a copy of which is available with The Indian Express – is being interpreted by some Commission members as almost asking it to obtain data to justify quota for the Maratha community. Two of its nine members resigned in the last week and another said he was contemplating resignation – all of them complaining of “growing interference”.
While Killarikar cited the “biased” and “agenda-driven” functioning of the panel, Hake pointed towards the growing “interference” from the government as the reason for their resignations. Another member, Justice (retd) Chandralal Meshram told The Indian Express he was also contemplating resignation. “We are not government servants. We are not supposed to work based on government orders. I have yet not made a decision, but yes, I am thinking about resigning. I will discuss with some seniors and take a call in the next two-three days,” he said.
A fourth member, who did not wish to be named, had told The Indian Express that in the December 1 meeting of the Commission, the dissenting members disapproved collection of data only on Marathas, and instead pushed for collecting data on all communities.
The 10-point ToR requires the panel to determine the criteria and parameters to ascertain social, educational and economic, backwardness and to define exceptional circumstances and or extraordinary situations to be applied for reservation benefits.
The ToR asks the panel to “collect fresh quantifiable and other data and information and also scrutinise and inspect the data and information collected in the past…for determining the social and educational backwardness of Maratha community and their inclusion in the list of backward classes, by applying the criteria and parameters determined as above”.
The protests led by Manoj Jarange-Patil for Maratha reservation and the relentless pressure on the government from the community had forced it to entrust the task afresh to MSBCC. But another member of the commission said the state only sought the commission’s stamp to cross the 50 per cent reservation mark.
The five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had in May 2021 struck down Maratha reservation for having breached the 50 per cent ceiling as specified in the Indra Sawhney judgement in 1992.
Opposition parties in the state have been demanding that the state government work with the Centre to raise the reservation ceiling above 50 per cent. With BJP at the Centre, and in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) and Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) in Maharashtra, the state government has, for the first time, expressed willingness to jointly work with the Centre for granting reservation to Marathas.
Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis had, in the past, said the government will study the Bihar caste survey procedure. But no one from the government spoke about raising the 50 per cent reservation ceiling.
The Maratha agitation in Maharashtra led by social activist Manoj Jarange Patil forced the state government to speed up the process of granting OBC certificates to Marathas. It has led to protests from OBCs who have warned of agitation if their share of reservation is reduced. The state government’s curative petition in the Supreme Court regarding Maratha reservation is pending and it needs the data on the backwardness of Marathas in the state from the commission.
Reacting to Nirgude’s resignation, Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the resignation was because of his personal reasons. “He was doing good work while in the commission. We wanted him to give additional responsibility. However in his resignation letter itself he has written that he was resigning because of personal reasons,” said Fadnavis.
Fadnavis also added that the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government appointed political workers as members of the commission. “I do not give any importance to the criticism of those who have resigned from the commission as they are reading the script from their political masters,” said Fadnavis.
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