Telangana Assembly passes Scheduled Castes categorisation bill

Hyderabad: The Telangana Assembly on Tuesday passed the historic Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Bill, 2025 related to sub categorisation/classification of the SCs.

Once passed by the Legislative Council, the bill will be forwarded for the State Governor's assent. This legislation follows a Supreme Court verdict supporting SC sub-categorization and affirming states' rights to enact necessary legislation in this regard.

In his speech after the passage of the Bill in the assembly, Revanth Reddy observed that many people have lost their lives in the long struggle for classification. 'This is a historic moment that provides a permanent solution to a decades-old problem', he said.

He said that his government has been working for the welfare and upliftment of Dalits while standing by them. It was the Congress party that had the honor of making a Dalit like Damodaram Sanjeevaiah the Chief Minister in the United state in 1960. The party appointed a Dalit, Mallikarjun Kharge, as the AICC President, he said.

“The Punjab case continued for a long time in the Supreme Court. After coming to power, we presented our arguments in favor of SC classification before seven judges in the Supreme Court through our lawyer. As soon as the Supreme Court verdict came, we passed a resolution in the Assembly in favor of classification. We formed a Cabinet sub-committee, consulted legal experts, and established a one-man commission. We accepted the report given by the one-man commission without any changes. We divided 59 sub-castes into three groups and distributed 15 percent reservations among them,” he added.

Revanth Reddy assured that the government will support the families of those who lost their lives in the SC classification struggle and give priority to their families in Indiramma Houses and Rajiv Yuva Vikas schemes.

“Everyone is supporting the government's decision to provide a permanent solution to the classification issue. After the completion of the 2026 census, we will increase SC reservations according to those figures. It is our responsibility to increase reservations and distribute them rationally. As the leader of the House, I promise you no injustice will happen to you in Indiramma's rule. We will take the responsibility of increasing reservations and implementing them. Thank you to everyone who cooperated for the approval of the bill”, Revanth Reddy said.

Following a supreme court verdict, the Telangana government had appointed a judicial commission headed by retired High Court judge Justice Shameem Akther. The panel submitted its recommendations to the subcommittee headed by state Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy in February first week.

The single-member commission has identified a total of 59 subcastes within the Scheduled Castes (SCs) in Telangana. The commission has recommended classifying these sub-castes into three groups. Commission suggested categorising SCs into Groups 1, 2, and 3, and recommended distributing the total 15% reservation among these three groups. The commission proposed the allocation as Group 1: 1% reservation for 15 sub-castes, which constitute 3.288% of the population. Group 2: 9% reservation for 18 sub-castes, representing 62.748% of the population. Group 3: 5% reservation for 26 sub-castes, accounting for 33.963% of the population