New Delhi: The Bombay high court on Monday (September 1) ordered Maratha rights activist Manoj Jarange-Patil and his supporters to vacate all streets and restore normalcy in Mumbai by tomorrow, LiveLaw reported. Jarange-Patil has been on an indefinite hunger strike, which he says is his “final” one, at Azad Maidan since August 29, demanding 10% reservation for the Maratha community in government jobs and education under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category. According to his supporters, he has now stopped consuming water.A bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad, hearing the matter, said that the ongoing agitation led by Jarange had brought the city to a standstill. The court had taken up a special hearing amid Ganesh festival holidays in light of the inconvenience caused to the public due to the protest.Thousands of people from the Maratha community had poured into Mumbai early August 29 with many supporters, especially the youth, travelling from across different districts of Maharashtra. The state government which had earlier denied permission for protest, following the Bombay high court order, allowed the protest to be held in Mumbai but only between 9 am to 6 pm on Friday. However, the protesting community refused to budge as their leader continued with his hunger strike.The bench today observed that protesters had moved beyond Azad Maidan, the designated protest site, and were gathering at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Churchgate station, Marine Drive and even outside the high court building, blocking entry gates and disrupting movement of judges and lawyers. It said the conditions imposed for a peaceful protest had been violated and Jarange’s assurance to the police had not been honoured, the report said.The court directed the government to ensure that no more protesters enter the city and to provide medical assistance to Jarange, if his health deteriorated. The bench has given Jarange-Patil and his supporters a final opportunity to clear and clean the streets by Tuesday. They said his assurances about avoiding disruption had been broken and questioned why the state had not yet taken steps to clear the roads.While every citizen has a right to protest, it must be exercised peacefully and within legal limits, the bench observed, as per the report. It reiterated its earlier order of August 26 that protests must strictly comply with the Public Meetings, Agitations and Processions Rules, 2025, which had been notified that day under Section 33 of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951.Jarange-Patil has been long demanding an earmarked 10% quota for the community under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category in the state. The Maratha community, along with its political dominance, is considered to be numerically a sizeable community, with several state-set up commissions, researches putting the community population at around 30% of the state population. Since the enumeration is not done scientifically, many have contested this number too.In the existing quota share of 27% for the OBC communities, over 350 big and small communities fight for their share. Barring a few numerically and socially dominant ones, many communities still struggle to get adequate education for government jobs.