T’gana govt implements sub-categorisation of SC

The Telangana government on Monday went ahead with a sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes in quotas in educational institutions and for government jobs, issuing a gazette notificationand becoming among the first batch of states in the country to implement sub-categorisation after the Supreme Court allowed the same in August 2024.

Haryana was the first state to go ahead with sub-categorisation in Scheduled Caste reservation in 2024 soon after the apex court order. To be sure, some states allowed sub-categorisation in reservation for different categories even before that.

A Telangana cabinet sub-committee headed by state minister for irrigation N Uttam Kumar Reddy and comprising other ministers C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, Ponnam Prabhakar and Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy handed over the first copy of the gazette notification to chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday afternoon.

“Telangana is the first state in India to implement the revolutionary decision of #SCSubCategorisation. We are all proud to have made history. On the highly auspicious day of the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna, Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar, the #Telangana State government paid the best tributes by bringing into force a great Act of #SocialJustice addressing a long overdue demand of classification of SC sub-castes,” the chief minister tweeted on X.

The issuance of the gazette notification followed an assent given by state governor Jishnu Dev Varma on April 8 to the legislation , The Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservation) Bill, 2025, passed by the state legislature in March.

“Starting today, the sub-categorisation of the SCs will be implemented in Telangana in employment and education. We have issued a government order to that extent,” Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters.

He announced that all job vacancies in the state government would now be filled according to the new sub-categorisation .

Uttam Kumar Reddy said the state government had in October 2024 constituted a commission headed by retired high court judge Justice Shameem Akther to study SC categorisation, as per the directions of the Supreme Court judgement of August 1, 2024, which endorsed a state government’s rights to sub-categorise SCs.

It received over 8,600 representations and conducted a detailed analysis of population distribution, literacy levels, higher education admissions, employment trends, financial aid, and political participation. After initial submission, its tenure was extended by a month to address concerns raised by several communities.

The commssion submitted its report in February. Pointing out that the cabinet sub-committee rejected the Akthar Commission’s recommendation to introduce a creamy layer within the SC category, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the government was committed to ensuring equitable benefits without excluding any sub-group based on economic criteria.

The government has decided to divide the 59 SC communities into three distinct groups — Group I, Group II and Group III — which will now share the existing 15 per cent quota for SCs in government jobs and education.

The minister said the current 15% reservation for SCs is based on the 2011 Census, whereas the SC population in Telangana has since grown to approximately 17.5%. He said the Congress government would consider increasing the size of the pie once data from the next Census is available.