Quota report annexures can be accessed: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Thursday said that it cannot stop petitioners from accessing annexures of the Backward Classes Commission’s report on the Maratha quota. The petitioners were free to go to the state secretariat and inspect the hard copies of the annexures, the court said.

The petitioners infor-med a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Bharati Dangre that while they were given a copy of the commission’s report, they were refused a copy of the annexures, which were part of the commission’s report.

“The annexures are also an important part of the commission’s report, as they comprise statistical data on the basis of which it recommended reservation,” argued advocate Gunaratan Sadavarte, appearing for one of the petitioners.

Senior counsel V.A. Thorat, appearing for the government, told the court that the annexures were voluminous and running into 35 volumes. “The government is yet to scan it. The petitioners are free to go to the ‘Mantralaya’ and inspect hard copies of the annexures and take copies of pages that they need,” he said.

The petitioners’ lawy-ers, however, refused and said that they were entitled to get copies of the entire annexures.