After Telangana, Andhra assembly approves SC sub-categorisation bill

The Andhra Pradesh state legislature has approved a resolution supporting the sub-categorization of Scheduled Castes (SCs) for reservations in education and jobs. This decision was based on a report by a one-member commission led by retired IAS officer Rajiv Ranjan Mishra.

How the resolution was passed

On Thursday, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu presented the resolution in the assembly, while state home minister Vangalapudi Anitha moved it in the legislative council. Both houses adopted the resolution by voice vote. The decision will now be sent to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for approval.

In November 2024, the Andhra Pradesh government appointed Rajiv Ranjan Mishra to study SC classification. The commission surveyed all 13 districts and submitted a report on March 10, 2025. It recommended dividing 59 SC sub-castes into three categories to fairly distribute the 15% reservation quota.

1. Group-1: The most backward Relli sub-castes – 1% reservation
2. Group-2: The backward Madiga sub-castes – 6.5% reservation
3. Group-3: The relatively less backward Mala sub-castes – 7.5% reservation

This means that if 100 government job openings are available, the Mala community will get 8 posts, Madigas 6%, and Rellis 1%. If there are 200 job openings, 15 posts will go to Malas, 13 to Madigas, and 2 to Rellis.

The resolution also proposed adding the Budaga Jangam community to the Relli sub-category. The central government will review this proposal before final approval.

The sub-categorization was done using the 2011 Census data. However, the government plans to re-evaluate it after the 2026 national Census. Future classification may consider districts separately instead of treating the entire state as a unit.

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A promise fulfilled

Chief Minister Naidu said this move was part of the Telugu Desam Party-led coalition’s election promises. He emphasized that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that reservation distribution must be fair within SC groups.

Naidu recalled that the issue of SC sub-categorization had been discussed since he first became chief minister in 1995. His government had formed the Justice Ramachandra Rao Commission on September 10, 1996, to study this. The commission submitted its report on May 28, 1997, leading to the government issuing an order on June 6, 1997.

Under this order, SC reservations were divided into four groups: A, B, C, and D. With approval from then-President KR Narayanan, the classification was implemented on November 30, 1999. This benefited Madiga and other sub-castes by creating over 22,000 job opportunities.

However, legal challenges followed. In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that only Parliament had the authority to make such classifications.

Later, the central government formed the Usha Mehra Commission, which studied the impact of reservation classification between 2000 and 2004. The findings supported the idea that dividing reservations within SC groups helped reduce inequalities.

In August 2024, a seven-judge Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud ruled in favor of SC reservation classification. This verdict paved the way for Andhra Pradesh’s recent decision to implement sub-categorization.