Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced on Thursday that his government would, if necessary, issue an ordinance to implement reservations for the sub-castes of Scheduled Castes, in accordance with the Supreme Court's verdict.
In a statement to the state assembly, Revanth Reddy welcomed the Supreme Court's Constitutional bench judgment, which upheld the classification of Scheduled Castes into sub-groups for the implementation of reservations in education and employment.
The Chief Minister stated that the state government would soon decide on categorizing SCs into four sub-groups: A, B, C, and D.
"The government will also take appropriate measures to implement reservations for the Madiga and Mala sub-castes in the recently issued job notifications. If necessary, we will promulgate an ordinance to this effect," Revanth Reddy said.
He criticized the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government for lacking sincerity in fighting the case in the Supreme Court.
"When our former MLA A. Sampath Kumar sought to raise the SC categorization issue in the state assembly through an adjournment motion, he was suspended from the House," he said.
After the Congress came to power in December 2023, Revanth Reddy said he had assigned Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and State Health Minister Damodara Raja Narasimha to follow up on the case.
"We sent the Advocate General to the Supreme Court to argue on behalf of the state government on December 23, 2023. The ministers worked with legal experts to present a strong case for SC categorization in the Supreme Court," he explained.
"The state government’s efforts finally paid off, and the Supreme Court delivered a judgment in favor of categorization," the Chief Minister said, thanking the apex court for resolving this long-standing issue.
