The Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, 2024, is a state-level Act that provides reservation for the Maratha community in Maharashtra. The Act was passed by the Maharashtra Legislature and received the Governor's assent on February 26, 2024. Its origin lies in the long-standing demand for Maratha reservation, which was previously addressed by the SEBC Act, 2018, which granted 16% reservation but was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2021. The 2024 Act was created to solve this problem after the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission, chaired by Justice (Retd.) Sunil Shukre, submitted a report identifying the Marathas as a socially and educationally backward class.
The Act works by providing 10% reservation for the Maratha community in recruitment for government jobs and admissions to public and private educational institutions. This quota is specified to be over and above the existing reservations in the state. A key provision is that the reservation is subject to the "creamy layer" principle, meaning it is only available to those within the community who are not in the creamy layer bracket. The Act connects directly to the Supreme Court's ruling in Indra Sawhney v. Union of India (1992), which established a 50% ceiling on total reservations, a limit the new Act challenges as its addition raises the total reservation in Maharashtra to 62% or 72% (depending on the inclusion of the EWS quota). The Act also utilizes the powers granted to the state under Article 15(4), 15(5), and 16(4) of the Constitution. The SEBC Act, 2024, replaced and repealed the earlier SEBC Act, 2018, reducing the reservation percentage from 16% to 10%, but maintaining the core objective of classifying the Maratha community as an SEBC.