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On Friday, in the hearing of the series of petitions that questioned 16 per cent reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and educational institutions, Advocate Pradeep Sancheti represented Sanjeet Shukla, one of the petitioners of the case. Uday Govindraj Dhople is another petitioner in the case. There are also three other PILs tagged along in this matter, including the one filed by People's Health Organisation, and four intervention applications in support of the legislation mentioned above.
Sancheti made a submission before the bench headed by Justice Ranjit More and Justice Bharati Dangre that there were five 'expert institutes' who had been appointed by the State Backward Classes Commission to conduct an inspection into the educational and economic backwardness of the Maratha community in western Maharashtra, Konkan, Marathwada, Vidarbha and northern regions of Maharashtra. The five expert institutes were namely, Sharda Academy, Gokhale institute, Rambhau Mhalgi Probodhini, Shivaji Academy and Gurukrupa Sanstha. Sancheti alleged that out of these, three are politically connected.
In addition, he argued that these institutions did not possess the technical skills to carry out such a survey or inspection and that no survey was conducted in Mumbai, although 20 per cent of the Maratha community lives in Mumbai.
The State did not carry out preliminary checks before appointing these institutes and none of these institutes had previous experience in carrying out a large-scale survey. They had conducted an inspection in 43,000 families that covered about 2 lakh people, which is not even covering 0.2 per cent of the total population. Sancheti further argued that the Narayan Rane Committee report that had covered about 4.5 lakh of people was flawed and cannot be invoked in this matter. Advocate VM Thorat who was appearing on behalf of the State argued vigorously against Sancheti's contentions and questioned whether the petitioners were implying that the Commission was prejudiced. The hearing of the said matter will further continue on Monday.
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