Hyderabad, March 18 : The Telangana Assembly on Tuesday passed a Bill for the sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes (SCs) for fair distribution of reservation as per the order passed by the Supreme Court last year.

The Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Bill, 2025 was unanimously passed by a voice vote as all the parties extended their support.

The Bill has divided 59 SC communities in the state into three groups for implementation of the 15 percent reservation for SCs. It provided one per cent reservation to 15 SC communities categorised as most socially, economically, and educationally disadvantaged/overlooked which formed 3.288 percent of the total SC population in the state.

Group-II, with 18 communities and comprising 62.748 per cent of the SC population, will be provided 9 per cent reservation and the third category comprising 26 significantly benefitted scheduled castes forming 33.963 per cent of the SC population will be given 5 per cent reservation.

The Bill said that in order to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities, and opportunities not only amongst individuals but also groups and to ensure that SCs which form the most backward classes achieved unified and uniform progress, the government decided to bring legislation for sub-classification of SC community without touching upon or interfering with the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy termed the passing of the Bill a historic move for social justice.

He agreed with the demand made by some members to increase the SC reservation from 15 per cent to 18 per cent. He assured the House that the government would enhance SC quota in proportion to their population after the 2026 census. The state currently has population data based on 2011 census.

Revanth Reddy pointed out that the movement for the sub-categorisation of SCs was 30 years old.

He recalled that within an hour of the Supreme Court delivering its judgment, the state government decided to implement it.

It formed a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy to study the issue and make recommendations. On its recommendation, the government appointed a one-man Commission headed by former high court judge Shameem Akhtar.

The Commission collected empirical data concerning population, literacy, employment, admissions, recruitments, financial assistance and political representation pertaining to 59 sub-castes under SCs from different departments and organisations. It had recommended categorisation of SCs into three groups and recommended the percentage of reservation for each of the groups.

The report of the Commission was accepted by the government and the same was tabled in the Assembly on February 4.

Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, who moved the Bill on behalf of the Chief Minister, said the Bill was drafted keeping in mind the essence of the Supreme Court judgement that disadvantaged sections among SCs need preferential treatment.

He said as per the order of the Supreme Court, the sub-categorisation has been done based on empirical data. He clarified that there was no truth in the claims made by some people that sub-categorisation affected large number of SC people.

The minister said the sub-categorisation affected only 1,78,914 people, who just comprised 3.43 per cent of the total SC population of 52,17,768.

/IANS