Mumbai, February 20, 2026 — More than a decade after it was first introduced, Maharashtra's proposed 5% reservation for socially and educationally backward sections of the Muslim community in government jobs and educational institutions has been formally scrapped by the BJP-led Mahayuti government. A Government Resolution (GR) issued by the Social Justice Department on February 17, 2026, cancelled all related previous orders, circulars, and administrative processes, effectively closing the chapter on a policy that never fully became law.
The quota, announced in July 2014 by the then Congress-NCP government under Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, was introduced through an ordinance just months before the Maharashtra Assembly elections. It aimed to provide 5% reservation under the Special Backward Category-A (SBC-A) for around 50 identified Muslim communities classified as socially and educationally backward. A parallel 16% quota for Marathas was also part of the package.
However, the ordinance — a temporary measure used when the legislature is not in session — faced immediate legal and political challenges. In November 2014, the Bombay High Court partly upheld the reservation for education (citing "extraordinary circumstances" and sufficient backwardness data for certain communities) but stayed its implementation in government jobs, questioning the adequacy of data and potential violation of constitutional norms, including the 50% cap on reservations.
The critical blow came from the electoral outcome. In the October-November 2014 Assembly polls, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance defeated the Congress-NCP coalition, forming the new government under Devendra Fadnavis. Under the Indian Constitution, an ordinance must be converted into a permanent law by the state legislature within six weeks of the Assembly's reassembly (or a maximum of six months). The deadline for ratification was December 23, 2014. The new BJP-led government, opposed to the Muslim-specific quota (which it described as an "appeasement" tactic ahead of elections), did not table or pass a bill to enact it.
As a result, the ordinance lapsed automatically on December 23, 2014, rendering the reservation inoperative. Subsequent Supreme Court proceedings in related Special Leave Petitions further invalidated aspects of the policy, though the core issue remained its failure to become statutory law.
For over a decade, the provision existed in a legal limbo: no benefits were extended to the community under this quota, yet administrative processes like issuing caste verification and validity certificates continued in some cases based on the old framework. The recent GR formally rescinds those lingering procedures, aligning administrative records with the legal reality.
The move has sparked sharp political reactions. Opposition parties, including Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and others, have criticised it as "vengeful," "anti-minority," and unnecessary, arguing the quota was already non-functional. Congress leader Nana Patole called it an act of vengeance, while AIMIM and Samajwadi Party figures accused the government of an anti-backward class and anti-minority mindset.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance (BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP-Ajit Pawar) maintains the step is purely procedural — to clear ambiguity and reflect that the 2014 ordinance never had the force of permanent law. Officials stress no community has drawn benefits from it since 2014 due to the lapse and court interventions.
The episode highlights the complexities of reservation politics in Maharashtra, where caste and community-based quotas often intersect with electoral timing, judicial scrutiny, and changing governments. With the formal withdrawal, the 5% Muslim quota under SBC-A joins a list of policies that failed to survive regime changes and legal hurdles, leaving no active reservation framework for these Muslim groups in the state.
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