MUMBAI: Protestors at Parli in Beed district of Marathwada in Maharashtra ended their 21-day-old sit-in agitation for Maratha quota on Tuesday after an appeal from the Bombay High Court to the community to refrain from violence and committing suicide.
The court also made it clear that statutory procedures needed time to complete.
“Honorable court has said the procedures would need some time and has appealed to the community to observe restraint. Hence, we have decided to suspend the agitation till November end,” Abasaheb Patil, leader of the agitation in Parli, said.
Earlier in the day, a bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai said the community must remember that the high court has taken note of the situation and urged the community to refrain from resorting to extreme measures.
The bench was hearing a PIL filed by the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is seeking reservation and directions to the backward classes commission to submit its recommendations on the entitlement of such quota expeditiously.
The HC directed the commission to complete the collation of data related to the community’s socio-economic status and submission of its recommendations “as expeditiously as possible”.
Government counsel Ravi Kadam informed the HC that the commission had completed the collection of data from government agencies, village panchayats and educational institutes.
It had set up a three-member panel to analyse the data which was likely to submit its report to the commission by September 5, which will then need time till at least November 15 to submit its recommendations.