Maratha Reservation: Indra Sawhney was a balancing act decided during tumultuous times: Kapil Sibal for Jharkhand [Day 6 - LIVE UPDATES from SC]

A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is hearing the petitions challenging the validity of the Maharashtra State Reservation for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBC) Act, which had extended a 16% reservation for the Maratha community.

The Court had earlier also decided to hear all States in the matter, after a question of whether the Indra Sawhney case should be reconsidered cropped up. This case puts s 50% cap on the reservation permissible for backward classes.

Final hearings in the matter had commenced last Monday.

To read accounts of the hearings on Day 1 and Day 2 click here and here. To read Day 3 arguments, click here. Attorney General KK Venugopal completed putting forward his views on the issue on Day 4. In the last hearing on Friday, Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi completed his submissions, following which Senior Advocate Paramjit Patwalia began his submissions. Read an account of Day 5 here:

Live updates from the hearing today feature here.