The Bombay High Court on Wednesday refused to grant an interim stay on the Maharashtra government’s legislation providing reservation to the Maratha community in jobs and education. However, the bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice MS Karnik agreed to hear all petitions against the move in detail on December 10, PTI reported.

Advocate Gunaratan Sadavarte had filed a plea in November alleging that the Maharashtra government’s move to grant 16% reservation to the Maratha community in jobs and education is in contravention of a Supreme Court directive that quotas on the basis of caste should not exceed 50% of the total seats.

Advocate VA Thorat, representing the Devendra Fadnavis-led government, said that the petitioner cannot seek a stay order on the legislation through a public interest litigation.

Thorat argued that most of the petitions pending in the Bombay High Court opposed reservations for the Maratha community on the basis of a 2014 law, which had now been scrapped. He said the Maharashtra Assembly has ratified the new Maratha Reservation Act instead. “The new legislation takes care of all legal grievances that existed in the 2014 act,” the advocate claimed.

On November 27, Fadnavis had said the quota for the Maratha community will be independent of the existing 52% reservation system in the state. The Assembly passed the legislation on November 29.