On Monday, the Bombay High Court accepted a special hearing of a petition seeking the discontinuation of the current Maratha quota agitation being organized by activist Manoj Jarange at Azad Maidan. The High Court, which has been on holiday since August 27 due to the Ganesh festival, will resume normal proceedings on Tuesday. But a special bench consisting of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Gautam Ankhad was ordered to hear the desperate plea of the Amy Foundation against the protest this afternoon.
Since August 29, Jarange has been on an indefinite hunger strike in Azad Maidan in South Mumbai and is demanding 10 percent reservation to the Maratha community as an Other Backward Class (OBC). Thousands of supporters have joined the protest, and now they are assembling in key intersections in the business district to create a huge disruption to normal life and traffic.
The Amy Foundation petition is controversial because it concerns a public inconvenience and an immeasurable occupation of a public place with no relevant permission. On 26th August, the Bombay High Court had said that people cannot stay indefinitely in public places to protest, and demonstrations could only be made after taking the required approvals from the authorities. The court itself had even proposed that the government should look at authorising the protest to be held in the Kharghar region of Navi Mumbai.
The authorities had permitted Jarange to conduct the protest at Azad Maidan on a one-day basis, which was later extended to one more day. In spite of these restrictions, the activist has threatened never to move out of Mumbai till his demands are fulfilled regarding the reservation of Marathi.
This petitioner applied to have an urgent hearing with reference to the inconvenience to the residents and commuters because of the constant occupation of Azad Maidan. Now that the high court has voted to hear the case on an emergency basis.
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