MUMBAI: While justifying its recommendation for 10% reservation in education and govt jobs for Marathas, the Maharashtra State Commission for Backward Classes has told the Bombay high court there is “exceptional backwardness” among the community, which is “pushed to the dark edge of mainstream society” and “looked down upon” by the open category.
The Justice (retd) Sunil Shukre-headed commission replied to petitions that challenged its Feb 15 report before the high court.On July 10, a full bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justices Girish Kulkarni and Firdosh Pooniwalla directed the panel to file its reply.

The reply, filed by Asharani Patil, member-secretary, said the commission carried out a quantitative analysis of data regarding 1.58 crore households after extensive field surveys. It evaluated the data with previous committee reports and other reputed agencies. Its data set out the regression of the Maratha community in govt services and economic and social backwardness. There was decreasing representation in govt services, an increase in households below the poverty line and landlessness, worsening living conditions, caste and occupation-related inferiority, rising superstitious practices, women indignity, high suicide rates, and an alarming increase in child marriages.
The reply said the data clearly revealed societal reality. “These indicators together showed the deepening of social and economic backwardness of the Maratha community and that the Maratha community had been pushed to the dark edges of mainstream society that it can no longer be considered a part of the mainstream of society in any real sense of the term,” it stated. Also, the above indicators were found to be “exceptional circumstances and extraordinary situations which would justify reservation for the Maratha community.” The commission concluded that such “measure (reservation) would be a pathway for the community to overcome these exceptional and extraordinary challenges, ensuring equal opportunities in education, employment, and social upliftment, thereby contributing to their holistic development and integration into the mainstream of society.”
The commission had also analysed contemporaneous quantifiable data up to 2024 and found the Maratha community has a lower level of education vis-a-vis the open category. It had prepared 57 tables on the basis of its data to show the Maratha community “is socially and educationally backward.” However, the petitioners have adopted a “pick and choose” approach and pointed to alleged defects, the panel said.