HYDERABAD: With the Supreme Court endorsing the power of states to sub-classify reserved category groups, including SCs and STs, based on their degree of backwardness to better allocate reservation benefits, the way has been cleared for Telangana to implement SC/ST sub-categorisation.
Spearheaded by Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi (MRPS) president Manda Krishna Madiga, the movement for SC sub-categorisation began in 1994 in undivided Andhra Pradesh. It gained momentum over the years, prompting the Telugu Desam Party government in 1996 to constitute the Justice P Ramachandra Raju Commission to study the issue.
The Commission’s 1997 report recommended dividing SCs into four groups, each receiving a distinct portion of reservations. Following this, the state government enacted the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Ordinance in 1999, later replaced by an Act in 2002. However, this Act was struck down by the High Court, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004.
In 2004, following the UPA’s ascent to power, the Ministry of Social Justice formed a national commission led by Justice Usha Mehra to examine SC sub-categorisation in Andhra Pradesh. The 2008 report from this commission recommended amending Article 341 of the Constitution to allow sub-categorisation and de-sub-categorisation of SCs. Despite this, the Union government did not act on the report, saying that the matter was sub-judice.
Following bifurcation in 2014, the BRS government passed a resolution in the Telangana Assembly supporting SC sub-categorisation. The resolution was sent to the Union government. Both the Congress and BJP included SC sub-categorisation in their 2023 Assembly election promises, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirming the BJP’s commitment to the cause.
In light of the recent Supreme Court ruling, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy announced that the state would introduce an ordinance to implement SC sub-categorisation. The move is expected to allocate a fairer share of reservations to the most backward castes among the SCs.
