The Telangana government on Monday notified the state Scheduled Castes Rationalisation of Reservations Act, 2025. This makes it the first state to implement a sub-categorisation of Scheduled Castes groups.

On August 1, the Supreme Court had allowed the sub-classification of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes quotas for reservations in government jobs and education.

On the same day, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had announced that the Congress government in the state would implement a legislation on such a sub-categorisation, The New Indian Express reported.

Subsequently, a Cabinet sub-committee was constituted, which recommended the formation of a one-man commission headed by retired High Court judge, Justice Shameem Akther, to examine the categorisation of Scheduled Castes.

The commission recommended splitting 59 Scheduled Caste communities in the state into three groups within the 15% reservation allotted for government jobs and education.

Following this, the Telangana Scheduled Castes Rationalisation of Reservations Act was introduced during the recently concluded Budget Session in the state and passed on March 17.

The legislation received the governor’s assent on April 8.

The new law notified on Monday implemented the recommendation of the committee by dividing the 15% reservation into three categories based on population size and socio-economic factors.

Fifteen sub-castes within Scheduled Castes, categorised as most backward, have been classified as Group 1 with 1% reservation, The Hindu reported.

In addition, 18 sub-castes have been placed under Group 2 with 9% reservation, while 26 sub-castes relatively better placed in terms of opportunities has been placed in Group 3 with 5% reservation.

On Monday, the Cabinet sub-committee handed over the first copy of the gazette notification to Reddy.

The chief minister called the notification of the law a “revolutionary decision”.

“Empowering and ensuring opportunities for all sections of Dalits, the state govt issued a gazette notification, whose first copy was handed over to me today by the committee that undertook the historic work,” Reddy said in a post on X.

In February, the Socio Economic, Educational, Employment, Political, and Caste survey report undertaken in the state revealed that Backward Classes constituted 56.33% of the population in Telangana.

The population of Backward Classes in absolute numbers in Telangana is 1,99,85,767, according to the report.

As per the door-to-door household survey conducted in November and December, Scheduled Castes comprised 17.43%, or 61,84,319, of the population and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 10.45%, or 37,05,929. Other castes made up 15.79% of the population.

Muslims made up about 12.56%, or 44,57,012, of the population. Of this, Backward Classes Muslims accounted for 10.08%, or 35,76,588, and Other Classes Muslims accounted for 2.48%, or 8,80,424.

The caste survey was one of the promises made by the Congress in Telangana ahead of the Assembly elections in 2023. The party won the elections, defeating the Bharat Rashtra Samithi.

With the release of the report, Telangana became the third state to carry out such a survey after Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

Several Opposition parties, including the Congress, have also urged the Centre to conduct a nationwide caste census. They have contended that the exercise would help improve the delivery of social benefits and welfare schemes to the public.

Also read: What possibilities and challenges does the caste survey open up for the BJP and the Opposition?