Hyderabad: On Monday, Telangana officially issued a government order implementing Scheduled Castes (SC) categorisation, becoming the first state in India to do so. Earlier, the state had formed a commission led by retired High Court judge Justice Shameem Akther, which recommended dividing the 59 Scheduled Caste communities into three groups—Group I, II, and III—within the total reservation quota of 15 percent.
"The following Act of the Telangana Legislature received the assent of the Governor of Telangana on 8 April 2025, and the said assent is hereby first published on the 14th of April 2025 in the Telangana Gazette for general information," the GO said.
The issuance of GO coincides with the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar, architect of Indian Constitution.
According to the commission report, group-I one comprising 15 socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged SC communities, are given one per cent reservation.
Group-II, including 18 moderately benefited SC communities, are provided a nine per cent quota while the Group-III comprising 26 significantly benefited SC communities, are given five per cent reservation.
Addressing a press conference, Minister Reddy, who headed a sub-committee on SC Categorisation, said the first copy of the GO was given to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy this morning.
"From today, from this moment, SC categorisation will be implemented in Telangana in employment and education. We have issued a GO to that extent and gave the first copy to the CM," he told reporters.
"Telangana is the first state to implement the SC categorisation after the Supreme Court's verdicts," Reddy said.
The minister alleged that earlier governments in Telangana confined themselves to pass resolutions for the categorisation and never took forward.
He further said all job vacancies in the state government now will be filled according to the sub-categorisation for SCs.
The Irrigation Minister further said the cabinet sub-committee did an extensive exercise in collecting the opinion of all the stakeholders.
He also said if the SC population goes up in 2026 census, the reservations for it would go up accordingly.
In February, the Telangana Legislature approved Justice Akther's recommendations on Scheduled Castes (SC) categorisation, dismissing suggestions to exclude the creamy layer from reservations. Last month, the Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservation) Bill, 2025, was enacted, following the Supreme Court's favourable verdict on categorisation delivered last year.
(inputs from PTI)