Mumbai News

Bombay HC cancels reservation in Maharashtra direct service recruitment process – Times Now

Maratha Kranti Morcha Rally organised in Mumbai on August 10, 2017 (File Pic)

Photo : Mirror Now Bureau

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

  • The reservation was applicable as per the SEBC Act, 2018
  • In 2019, MahaDiscom released an advertisement for various posts that had direct service recruitment processes

By Ankit Salvi

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court (HC) on Friday quashed the state government’s order to include Maratha candidates in the open category of the Social and Economically Backward Class (SEBC) ten per cent reservation category in the direct service recruitment process.
The Supreme Court (SC) on September 9, 2020, gave an interim stay to the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act of 2018.
Candidates are shocked, who are trying to get benefits under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) reservation in the various direct service recruitment process of the year 2021.

In 2019, MahaDiscom released various posts that had direct service recruitment processes like Electrical Assistant, Substation Assistant, Graduate Apprentice Engineer Established, and Diploma Apprentice Engineer Distribution / Construction have been advertised.

At that time, as the reservation was applicable as per the SEBC Act, 2018 many candidates had filled out the applications under the reserved category. However, the SC on September 9 ordered an interim stay on the appeals against the Act.

Eventually, the SC cancelled the Maratha reservation. During the interim adjournment candidates who had applied in the direct service recruitment process under the reservation quota, were allowed to apply in the EWS category or open category, and were also allowed to obtain a certificate of EWS by the state government.

The State Government issued a GR on December 23, 2020. Also, based on this GR, the Industries Department issued such instructions on 10 February 2021. This was contested by several candidates from the EWS group in the open category who also supported the state government’s GR.

The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Makarand Karnik announced the reserved decision after hearing all these petitions.
“MahaDiscom, as well as Home Department, had already started the recruitment process. Therefore, the earlier rules of this GR apply to that recruitment process. In such a case, the state government cannot circumvent the rules by withdrawing the GR while the recruitment process is underway. Therefore, the GR of December 23, 2020 cannot be applied with retrospective effect,” the bench explained in its decision.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/in-focus/bombay-hc-cancels-reservation-in-maharashtra-direct-service-recruitment-process-article-93228153