The Bombay High Court on Tuesday refused to stay a resolution of the Maharashtra government issued on September 2, granting Kunbi status to Marathas of Marathwada, Live Law reported.

However, a division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad directed the state Social Justice Department to respond to the petitions challenging the resolution within four weeks.

The Kunbis form a sub-caste within the Maratha community. They are included in the Other Backward Classes.

The court was hearing a clutch of petitions filed by members of the Other Backward Classes communities, claiming that issuing Kunbi certificates to Marathas would open “a backdoor entry for the community” to claim reservation under the category.

While urging the court to order an interim stay on the resolution, the petitioners highlighted that civic elections across Maharashtra were due to take place and the resolution may allow ineligible persons to “get a certificate to contest from seats meant for reserved categories”, Live Law reported.

“It would lead to an irreversible situation,” the petitioners’ counsel argued.

The Supreme Court has set January 31, 2026, as the final deadline to hold local body polls in the state.

The government resolution came following a five-day stir by Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan.

Jarange-Patil had launched a hunger strike on August 29 to reiterate his demand for reservations in government jobs and education for the Maratha community under the Other Backward Classes category.

Quota demand

The Maratha community’s long-standing demand for reservations in education and government jobs resurfaced in 2023 with protests led by Jarange-Patil. The movement witnessed violence, suicides and the resignations of legislators.

In February 2024, Maharashtra’s Legislature passed a bill allowing for the creation of a 10% quota in education and government jobs for the Marathas. This would be in addition to the state’s 52% reservation quota, which includes a 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Section.

In August 2024, justifying its recommendation for the 10% quota for Marathas, the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission told the High Court that the community had been “pushed to the dark edges of mainstream society”.

The introduction of the 10% quota is similar to the 16% reservation for Marathas under the Other Backward Classes category that was introduced in 2018 by the state government at the time comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party and the undivided Shiv Sena.

That decision was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2021, citing the 50% cap on a state’s total reservations that the court had ordered in 1992. The court said that there were no “exceptional circumstances” or “extraordinary situation” in Maharashtra for the state government to breach the limit on reservations.

Jarange-Patil has insisted that reservations for Marathas be given under the Other Backward Classes category, on the grounds that the separate quota exceeds the constitutional ceiling of 50% and would likely be struck down by the judiciary.

The protest in September was the ninth led by Jarange-Patil in the past two years.

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