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The Bombay High Court on Monday (September 22, 2025) declined to hear a batch of petitions challenging the Maharashtra government’s decision to extend Kunbi caste certificates to members of the Maratha community, a move that would bring them under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota. The petitions were listed before a Division Bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sandesh D. Patil who initially said they would wait for an order from the Chief Justice to decide on which Bench would hear the petitions. Advocate Harshvardhan Suryavanshi for the petitioners informed the Bench that the Chief Justice on September 18, already dismissed a petition, noting that the right to question the government resolution lay only with those directly affected members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), who have already approached the court and the petitions were listed before the Bench on September 22.The September 18 Bench had stressed that it was in the public interest to avoid “multiplicity of litigations” and discourage PILs where individuals already affected have seized the court. “This particular PIL is not one where we should grant any indulgence. We are, therefore, not inclined to entertain this PIL and the same is dismissed,” the judges said. During the hearing, Justice Patil stated he was unable to take up the matter, prompting the Bench to recuse itself. The judges, however, did not specify any reasons for recusing the matter. The petitions will now be placed before Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Gautam Ankhad again. Five organisations representing OBC interests: Kunbi Sena, Maharashtra Mali Samaj Mahasangh, Ahir Suvarnkar Samaj Sanstha, Sadanand Mandalik and Maharashtra Nabhik Mahamandal, have challenged the government resolutions. The petitions said that the GR unlawfully alters the criteria for caste identification for Kunbi, Kunbi Maratha and Maratha Kunbi communities. It further called the GR ambiguous, unconstitutional and capable of creating total disorder in the certification process. The petitioners have alleged that the government is attempting, through indirect means, to grant OBC status to Marathas after previous legislative efforts failed judicial scrutiny. Published - September 22, 2025 03:01 pm IST