7 months ago
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The Bombay High Court connected Tuesday (October 7, 2025) refused to enactment the Maharashtra government’s determination to contented Kunbi caste certificates to members of the Maratha community who tin found their Other Backward Classes (OBC) lineage.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad was proceeding a batch of petitions filed by representatives of assorted OBC groups, including Kunbi Sena and Maharashtra Mali Samaj Mahasangh.
The petitioners argued that the government’s determination could pb to the inclusion of Marathas successful the OBC category, thereby affecting existing preservation entitlements.
The petitioners sought interim relief, including a enactment connected the implementation of the September 2 Government Resolution (GR), which allows eligible Maratha individuals to get Kunbi caste certificates based connected humanities documentation specified arsenic entries successful the Hyderabad gazetteer.
Declining to assistance interim relief, the Bench observed that it would not remark connected the merits of the lawsuit astatine this signifier and directed the State to record its effect wrong 4 weeks.
“We are not inclined to elaborate connected the issues raised by the petitioners astatine this signifier and hence diminution to assistance immoderate interim relief,” the Bench said.
Representing the State, advocator wide Birendra Saraf opposed the petitions, arguing that the petitioners were not straight affected by the GR and truthful lacked the locus standi to situation it.
The GR was issued pursuing a five-day protestation by Maratha quota activistic Manoj Jarange astatine Azad Maidan, demanding designation of Kunbi ancestry among Marathas to facilitate their inclusion successful the OBC category.
The petitioners contended that the solution was vague, arbitrary, and unconstitutional. They warned that the determination could make administrative disorder by altering the criteria for caste certification for Kunbi, Kunbi Maratha, and Maratha Kunbi groups.
