Mumbai, Jul 26 (TOI): The Maharashtra government's 13-year-old rule providing reservations in promotions may be on its way out after an important decision of a Bombay high court judge on Tuesday. Justice Mahesh Sonak agreed with Justice Amjad Sayed that the government's 2004 rules providing 33% reservation in promotions in departments of the state government as well as public bodies like the BMC and BEST was unconstitutional and illegal.

The matter was referred to Justice Sonak after a division bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Sayed differed on the issue. The matter will now be placed before the division bench for its common order. At stake are all promotions that were made in various government departments and public bodies after the May 2004 circular.

The issue before the court was the constitutional validity of the Maharashtra State Public Services (Reservations) Act enacted in 2001 and a May 2004 government circular. The Act provided for reservations in direct recruitments of up to 52% for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes, Special Backward Category and Other Backward Classes.

The circular of May 25, 2004 provided for 33% reservation in promotions for these communities—13% for SC, 7% for ST, and the remaining 13% for NT, VJDT and SBC.

In 2014, the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal struck down both the Reservation Act as well as the circular as unconstitutional. The matter was carried in appeal to the HC and the division bench had said that MAT was not justified in striking down the Act. They differed on the issue of the 2004 circular—Justice Sayed in his dissenting view ruled that the circular was "bad in law", a view now endorsed by Justice Sonak to form the majority decision.

The judge held that the reservations in promotions to communities other than SC and ST was illegal and was liable to be struck down. With regard to reservations in promotions for SC/ST, the judge concurred that the circular had to be quashed as there was no quantifiable data before the state to form an opinion that SC/ST were not adequately represented in government services.

Justice Sonak, however, did not agree with Justice Sayed's directive to give the state 12 weeks time to take corrective measures and to collect quantifiable data with regard to backwardness and adequate representation of marginalised communities in government jobs by December 31, 2017. Justice Sonak also opined that constitutional validity of the Reservation Act "is left open for determination in an appropriate case and in an appropriate action in future".