Prithviraj Chavan asks why this was done soon after Ajit Pawar’s demise, when Mr. Pawar had taken the Muslim reservation decision in 2014.
The Maharashtra government has issued an order scrapping the issuing of caste verification certificates and the validation process, effectively withdrawing the 5% reservation for the backward communities among Muslims in the state. The reservation issue was caught in a maze of legal tangles, and could not be implemented since the ordinance lapsed in December 2014, a whopping 11 years ago.
But the community had hoped that the government would implement the reservation in education. That hope, too, has been dashed by the government order now. The opposition has slammed the government, though it has also noted that there will be no impact on the current status of the community since it was anyway not benefiting from the reservation.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan asked why the BJP-led government had scrapped the decision soon after Ajit Pawar’s demise, when Mr. Pawar had taken the decision in 2014. “Is his party not standing for Muslim reservation anymore?” he asked while speaking with The Hindu on Wednesday (February 18, 2026).
Congress leader Amin Patel, who has been fighting for the cause of Muslim reservation in education, termed it a lost battle. “This reservation for Muslims in education is important for nation-building,” he said. Mr. Patel had raised the issue in the Assembly several times in the last decade to draw the government’s attention to formulate a law regarding it. “The High Court had also been positive about it,” he said.
Background
Let us first try to understand the brief timeline of the Muslim reservation issue in Maharashtra.
In 2009, the Maharashtra government under Prithviraj Chavan and Ajit Pawar appointed Dr. Mehmoodur Rehman Committee to study Muslim backwardness. After the Sachar committee report and the Ranganath Mishra report, it gave its findings in 2013, naming 50 sub-castes in Muslims in Maharashtra as the castes with high level of disparities.
As per the committee’s recommendations, the Maharashtra government had then promulgated an ordinance in 2014 for Maratha as well as Muslim reservation. A special category named Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) was announced for it. On the basis of Narayan Rane committee report on Maratha reservation, the government had announced 16% reservation for Marathas, and on the basis of Mehmoodur Rehman committee, it had announced 5% reservation for backward classes within Muslims.
After the ordinance was passed, the decision was implemented. But both the decisions were challenged in the Bombay High Court in 2014 itself. The Bombay High Court had scrapped the Maratha reservation in jobs and in education. While scrapping the Muslim reservation in government and semi-government jobs, it had observed that educational reservation should be given to the community.
But elections had already taken place by then. And the new government led by the BJP did not enact any law on it before the ordinance lapsed in December 2014. Since there were no observations against reservations for Muslims in education, the option of passing a law to that effect was available to the government.
Nonetheless, several orders were issued by the government in 2014 and 2015 for the issuance of certificates, which would enable people to claim the benefits of reservation. But in the absence of the ordinance or a law, the community could not get any reservation benefit in education since December 2014.
Now, in line with the stated legal position and the developments so far, the government has officially scrapped the procedures for Muslim reservation.
‘Infructuous’
“This decision by the government is infructuous at this time. What is the point of passing this order when the community was anyway not getting any reservation? It is just a means to draw the attention away from the trade deal and from the Epstein files,” Prithviraj Chavan, who was the CM when the decision to grant reservation to the backward communities within Muslims was taken, said.
He said that the BJP was spreading false narrative that it was religion-based reservation. “It is not religion-based. Just like the Mandal commission looked at backward classes within the Hindus, this one looked for backward classes within Muslims. We had started the process in 2013 itself. But by the time it could be completed, it was 2014. So we issued two separate ordinances in July 2014. Elections took place and the BJP came to power. In the mean time, the decisions too were challenged. But the BJP could have brought in a law for reservation in education for the backward communities within Muslims,” he said.
He demanded that it should be done now, and said that if the Congress came to power, it would bring this law.
At present, the reservation under SBCA (Special Backward Class A category), giving 5% reservation to backward communities to Muslims stands scrapped in Maharashtra.
Published – February 19, 2026 01:07 am IST
