Bombay High Court on Tuesday severely criticized the Maharashtra government for its failures in dealing with the ongoing Maratha reservation agitation spearheaded by activist Manoj Jarange. The court stated it was “not satisfied with the state government” regarding the manner in which the agitation was dealt with, especially in Mumbai. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Aarti Sathe also took activists to task for occupying Azad Maidan from August 29 without police permission, resulting in huge traffic jam in South Mumbai.

The court observed that despite its previous orders on August 26 and September 1, activists continued to disrupt normal functioning. “You cannot make a judge of this court walk in the street to come to his court and hold proceedings. You cannot make a High Court judge walk like this simply because your protestors were dancing on the road,” the bench noted. The court also added that Jarange and other organisers could be held culpable for initiating more than 5,000 individuals to travel to Mumbai for the stir.

Who is Manoj Jarange and Why is He Protesting?

Manoj Jarange-Patil is an farmer activist born on August 1, 1982, in Maharashtra’s Beed district He is a farmer activist and the main face of the Maratha reservation ongoing agitation. Following a hunger strike in September 2023, in Antarwali-Sarathi village, Jalna district, he gained notoriety as a flashpoint for the quota protests. Jarange has organized a number of protest marches under the umbrella of Maratha Kranti Morcha and Sakal Maratha Samaj ever since.

Jarange-Patil’s main demand is that the state government grant Kunbi caste certificates to all Marathas and include the community in the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. While the Kunbis, a sub-caste of peasants, are already OBCs, Jarange contends that most Marathas were at one point recorded as Kunbis in British-era gazettes. He has also demanded that these certificates be issued to Marathas of Kunbi origin, their relatives, and marital relations, thus securing OBC benefits to all the Maratha community.

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