Findings of SBCC differ from that of Rane and Mandal commissions, HC told

The petitioners challenging 16 per cent reservation to Maratha community, on Wednesday pointed out several loopholes in the findings of the State Backward Class Commission (SBCC). The petitioners informed the Bombay High Court that the findings of the SBCC are way different than those of the Rane Commission and also the Mandal Commission that had earlier codncuted surveys of the Marathas.

A division bench of Justice Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre have been hearing final arguments in a bunch of petitions challenging the quota for Marathas, since last one week.

On Wednesday, the bench was hearing arguments of senior counsel Pradeep Sancheti, who appeared for petitioner advocate Sanjeet Shukla.

Referring to the data collected by the SBCC, Sancheti said, “Firstly, the commission has unnecessarily used a marking scheme, which is much different to that used by Mandal commission and Rane commission. Secondly, the data or the findings of the SBCC is much different than that of both those commissions.”

“The data and its marking scheme is quite confusing and illogical,” Sancheti argued.

In his arguments, Sancheti further highlighted that the SBCC used some unnecessary questions in its questionnaires, based on which it surveyed its samples.

“For instance, there is a question asking the samples if they perceive themselves backward. And the answers to it reveal that 98 per cent of Marathas have said they perceive themselves as backward,” Sancheti pointed out.

"This is erroneous. It is obvious that this community wants reservation so majority of its members will say they perceive themselves backward. Instead of this query, the commission should have had asked members of other communities, if they perceive Marathas backward and a similar question to this community on if other communities look down at them," Sancheti argued.

Sancheti would continue his arguments on Thursday.