Hyderabad: Telangana has become the second state after BJP-ruled Haryana to sub-categorise Scheduled Castes (SCs) for the purpose of reservations.
The Congress government in Telangana led by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy passed the Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Bill, 2025, on Tuesday (March 18), seven months after the Supreme Court held in August last year that sub-classification of SCs by states was permissible because of the varying levels of discrimination and backwardness faced by different groups.
Close on the heels is neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which is also geared up for the occasion, having already completed a substantial part of the task.
In the context of Telangana and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, sub-classification of SCs has mainly been a tug of war between the Mala and Madiga communities where the former was seen as cornering the lion’s share of reservations due to higher opportunities while the latter lost out owing to backwardness despite being numerically strong.
59 sub castes divided in three groups
As a result, in the latest legislation, the 59 SC sub-castes in the Presidential List have been divided into three groups based on population and degree of their social, economic and educational backwardness and extended reservations pro-rata within their existing fifteen percent quota. The Presidential List was common to both the Telugu speaking States.
In the Bill passed in the Telangana assembly on Tuesday, Group I consists of 15 most disadvantaged and overlooked communities which have been allotted one per cent reservation for their 3.28 per cent population as per 2011 census.
Group II has 18 moderately benefitted communities comprising Madigas and their sub-castes which will get nine per cent reservation for their 62.74 per cent population and Group III has 26 significantly benefited communities comprising Malas and their sub-castes which will get five per cent reservation for their 33.96 per cent population.
The legislation, which was passed unanimously in the assembly, was silent on the implementation of creamy layer principle to exclude affluent individuals or families from the benefit of reservation and make room for the really underprivileged within these classes.
The need for implementation of creamy layer was said to have been recommended by a one-man commission of inquiry headed by retired judge Shameem Akhter which was constituted by the state government to study sub-classification within SCs.
In the debate preceding the enactment of the Bill in the House, Kadiam Srihari, a former minister revealed that the government did not accept the creamy layer concept. Srihari praised the new law as an “achievement” of the three decade old Madiga Dandora movement led by Manda Krishna who was recently conferred the Padmashri award.
The long struggle of the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS)
For Krishna, the legislation is the culmination of a long struggle that included his call for a fast-unto-death in 2007. As part of the movement, he had locked himself in a small accommodation in the thickly populated Parsigutta area of Hyderabad, while his his supporters – with inflammable material in their hands and threatening to commit suicide – had surrounded him as guards to thwart any bid by police to pick him up. The police had to break open the locks to save Krishna.
Another significant event was a gherao of the Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of Congress which led to the death of four security personnel due to burn injuries as activists of Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) led by Krishna set fire to the premises in Hyderabad .
After the Dandora movement was launched in undivided Andhra Pradesh by Krishna from the native village of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the mid nineties, Naidu had introduced Scheduled Castes categorisation in the state in 1997. The united Andhra Pradesh government had divided SCs into A, B, C and D categories for reservation.
The Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had also become the first party in the country to introduce SC classification by constituting the Justice Ramachandra Raju commission to study the demand. After then President K.R. Narayanan gave assent to the legislation by Andhra Pradesh Assembly, A, B, C and D categorisation came into effect in the State from 1997, ensuring reservation quotas to various castes as per their population ratio and backwardness.
Also Read: Sub-Categorisation Debate: Unanswered Questions
The government had included 12 sub-castes in Group A for one per cent quota, 18 sub-castes in Group B for seven per cent, 25 sub-castes in Group C for six per cent and four sub-castes in Group D for one per cent reservation.
However, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had subsequently struck down the categorisation but it was reintroduced by the government in 2004 with the intervention of the Supreme Court. The TDP had claimed that 22,000 youth from Madiga and other sub-castes got jobs between 2000 and 2004 due to the categorisation.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court delivered a judgement on November 5, 2004, that only Parliament had the right to decide on categorisation.
Thereafter, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre appointed a commission headed by retired judge Usha Mehra which submitted a report in May 2008.
The report noted that “Madiga sub-castes did not get due justice in the reservations being implemented till 1997 but when the categorisation was in force during 2000 to 2004, it had yielded satisfactory results.”
Andhra Pradesh expected to follow suit
The Congress government which came to power in Andhra Pradesh after 2004 and won a second consecutive term in 2009, wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in October 2012 with an appeal to introduce a Bill in the Parliament on categorisation of SCs by amending the Constitution. But, the Congress-led UPA government as well as the BJP regime led by Narendra Modi dragged their feet on the issue until the Supreme Court delivered the judgement last year by a majority ruling.
As Telangana government stepped up efforts to sub-classify SCs after the court verdict, Andhra Pradesh government under Naidu also initiated moves to take up a similar legislation by appointing a retired IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra to head a one-man committee for studying subclassification of SCs. The committee submitted its report on March 11.
The committee is learned to have recommended three groups with Relli and other sub-castes in Group A for one per cent reservation, Madiga and other sub-castes in Group B for 6.5 percent reservation along with Mala and other sub-castes in Group C for 7.5 per cent reservation.
A cabinet meeting presided by Naidu accepted the report but reserved its decision on whether to implement the sub-classification with state or district as the unit. It was the election promise of Naidu to implement sub-classification district-wise.
Speaking about the Bill in the House, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy promised that the government will hike the overall reservation of SCs in the State from the present 15 per cent to 18 per cent, proportionate to their population. He expected the hike next year after the national census was completed. The government could not go ahead earlier as revision of reservation percentages required empirical data of population.
He said the Congress was committed to sub-categorisation right since the demand emerged in the State. The Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy led Congress government had also adopted a resolution in the Assembly backing the demand in the very first year of its term.
MRPS leader Manda Krishna told The Wire that the legislation was only a partial success of the organisation because the government failed to ensure a proportionate quota to the community on the basis of its population.
With a population of 15 lakh, the Malas got five per cent reservation. But, the Madiga and sub-castes got only nine per cent though their population was 32.33 lakh. The Madigas should have got 10 to 11 per cent, said Krishna.
Krishna blamed the categorisation undertaken by the government, saying some of the developed communities were bracketed with the most backward in Group I. This happened with Pambala and Manne communities which were included in Group I despite being well off. Relli, the scavenging community, on the other hand, was included in Group III meant for significantly developed groups, he said.
Similarly, the Netakanis were clubbed with Malas in Group III though there was a huge social and economic divide between them, added Krishna.
Mala Mahanadu State president G. Chennaiah said the organisation was “deeply hurt” at the reservation percentages as it had demanded eight per cent but got only five per cent. He said the Mahanadu would move the court seeking revision.
Legislation passed for 42 per cent reservation for BCs
Earlier, the Telangana assembly also passed two Bills – one increasing reservations in education and employment for backward classes up to 42 per cent and, another, extending equal quota for the communities in local bodies. All parties supported the twin Bills.
With this, the total reservation was sought to be raised up to 42 per cent for BCs, 15 per cent for SCs and 10 per cent for Scheduled Tribes (STs), making the overall quota in the state to 67 per cent. Chief Minister Reddy announced in the Assembly that the government will withdraw another legislation during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) regime which envisaged 37 per cent reservation for BCs, 15 per cent for SCs and 10 per cent for STs. The Act is awaiting assent of the President.
Presently, the BCs get a reservation of 29 per cent in education and employment, including four per cent for Muslims under the BC ‘E’ category. The SCs are entitled to 15 per cent and STs six per cent.
In local bodies, the SCs and STs are extended reservation based on their population in the district as a unit. The remaining percentage with a cap of 50 is awarded to the BCs. The number varied from district to district.
As the proposed quota exceeds the statutory 50 per cent ceiling for reservations, it was decided to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for inclusion of the Telangana law in Schedule IX of Constitution to get immunity from judicial review. Revanth Reddy later wrote a letter to Modi seeking an appointment to lead the delegation.
Forty two per cent reservation for BCs in education, employment and local bodies was the election promise of Congress government which was reflected in a declaration at the party rally in Kamareddy prior to polls.
The Cabinet of Reddy adopted a resolution in February last year to take up a statewide caste survey with focus on enumeration of the BC population. The elaborate exercise with over a lakh enumerators revealed the BC population at 53.36 per cent.
The government passed a resolution in the assembly and sent it to the Union government to concede the demand. The latest enactment was a statutory backing to the demand.
Earlier, Tamil Nadu and Punjab had implemented sub-categorisation by appointing their own commissions of inquiry prior to Supreme Court judgement.
Thereafter, the High Courts of the respective States struck down the proposal. The State governments then approached the Supreme Court which while staying the orders of the High Courts reserved judgment till the disposal of the cases. The final judgement was delivered last year but sub-categorisation continued in the States in the meantime.
