The Telangana government, led by the Congress party, has taken a big step by dividing the Scheduled Caste (SC) reservation into three parts. This new system is known as “reservation within reservation” or SC sub-categorisation. The state government officially published a gazette notification to bring this into effect.

As per the new rule, SCs in Telangana will now be grouped into three categories – Group I, Group II, and Group III – under the 15% total reservation for SCs.

  • Group I will get a 1% reservation.

  • Group II will get 9% reservation.

  • Group III will get 5% reservation.

According to the notification, Group I includes 15 backward castes, Group II has 18 castes, and Group III has 26 castes. These groups were created based on their level of social and economic backwardness. The goal is to make sure that the most backward castes within the SC community also get fair opportunities.

The decision comes months after the Supreme Court’s seven-judge Constitution Bench ruled that sub-categorisation of SCs and STs is allowed. The Court said this step can help give better support to the castes that are more backward, even within the SC and ST groups.

The Gazette notification said, “The said assent is hereby published on April 14, 2025, in the Telangana Gazette for general information.” The Act had earlier received the governor’s approval on April 8.

A historic step on Ambedkar Jayanti

Telangana Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “From this moment (of the issue of the gazette), SC categorisation will be implemented in Telangana in employment and education. We have issued a gazette and government order to this effect. The first copy of the gazette was given to the Chief Minister, A. Revanth Reddy.” He also added, “If the population of SCs goes up in the 2026 census, we will give reservation as per their population.”

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy shared his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter). He wrote, “Telangana is the first state in India to implement the revolutionary decision of SC sub-categorisation. We are all proud to have made history. On the highly auspicious day of the birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Babasaheb Dr B R Ambedkar, the Telangana state government paid the best tribute by bringing into force a great act of social justice, addressing a long-overdue demand for classification of SC sub-castes.”

He also said, “Empowering and ensuring opportunities for all sections of Dalits, the state government issued a gazette notification, whose first copy was handed over to me today by the committee that undertook the historic work.”

This decision was not easy for the Congress government. There was strong opposition from the Mala community, one of the sub-castes among SCs, who did not support this division. However, the Madiga community had been demanding this for the last 30 years, saying it would help the most backward people within the SC category get a fair share in jobs and education.

 

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