Mumbai, 18 Feb

The Maharashtra government's social justice department on Tuesday issued a government resolution (GR) and cancelled its earlier resolution of granting 5 per cent reservation to the Muslim community for educational institutions and government and semi-government jobs, a provision that had been legally invalidated over a decade ago.

The Reservation, introduced in July 2014 through an ordinance, classified Muslims under the Special Backwards Class-A (SBC-A) category and applied to government jobs and educational institutions. However, the ordinance was challenged in the Mumbai High Court, which stayed it on 14 November 2014.

Since the ordinance was not enacted into law by the Maharashtra legislature by the 23 December 2014, deadline, it lapsed automatically. The Supreme Court later cancelled the reservation while deciding a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Bombay High Court order, effectively invalidating the provision.

Despite the lapse of the ordinance and the Supreme Court's order, the Maharashtra government had not formally cancelled the original GR through any official order until now.

With the GR now formally cancelled, the government has declared all related decisions and communications void. This means no further admissions will be granted under the 5 per cent reservation in colleges and educational institutions, and no new caste or validity certificates will be issued under this category.

However, the GR issued on Tuesday is largely a formality, as the said reservation has not been in existence for well over a decade due to two key reasons- the supreme court cancellation of the order through SLP order and the automatic lapse of the ordinance after it was never brought before the Maharashtra legislatures as a bill to make it a law following the court order.

This GR is to cancel a reservation that has not been in effect for well over a decade.