Total reservations in Telangana now stands at 67%
Hyderabad: The Telangana Legislative Assembly on Monday passed two landmark Bills aimed at enhancing reservations for Backward Classes (BCs) in education, employment, and local bodies to 42 per cent.
The state government on Monday introduced three historic Bills in the House — namely the Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under the State) Bill, 2025, the Telangana Backward Classes (Reservation of Seats in Rural and Urban Local Bodies) Bill, 2025 and the Telangana Scheduled Castes (Rationalisation of Reservations) Bill, 2025.
After extensive deliberations, the House passed the first two Bills by voice vote, ensuring a 42 per cent reservation for BCs in education, employment, and local bodies (rural and urban local bodies). All political parties supported the BC quota Bills. They urged the state government to secure the Centre's approval and ensure their implementation in letter and spirit, reminding that the previous attempts to enhance reservations in 2017 failed to secure Centre’s nod to date.
All political parties stressed the need for the state government to present a strong case with the Centre and also in courts should any legal challenges arise in the future.
The third Bill on the sub-categorisation of 59 Scheduled Castes into three groups will be debated and passed on Tuesday.
With the passage of these Bills, the total reservation in Telangana has increased to 67 per cent, exceeding the Supreme Court-mandated 50 per cent limit. The state government must now seek the Centre’s approval for implementing the enhanced BC reservations.
Prior to September 2022, Telangana’s total reservations stood at 50 per cent, comprising 29 per cent for BCs (25 per cent for BCs in A, B, C, D groups and 4 per cent for Muslim minorities under the E category), 15 per cent for SCs, six per cent for STs.
In October 2022, the previous BRS government increased ST reservations from six per cent to 10 per cent, bringing the total reservations to 54 per cent. However, this enhancement faced legal challenges, and the cases remain pending in the High Court.
Under the Congress government, BC reservations have been further increased from 29 per cent to 42 per cent, raising total reservations to 67 per cent. Under the new reservation structure in the state, BCs will have 42 per cent quota, followed by SCs 15 per cent and STs 10 per cent.
The previous BRS government had passed "The Telangana Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of seats in Educational Institutions and of appointments of posts in the Services under the State) Bill, in April 2017, increasing minority Muslim reservations from 4 per cent to 12 per cent and ST reservations from six per cent to 10 per cent. This move took the overall reservation to 62 per cent. However, the Bill was sent for Centre and Presidential approval, which remains pending to date.
In light of this, the Congress government on Monday withdrew the previous Bill to facilitate the referral of the fresh 42 per cent BC quota Bill to the Centre. This was done after legal experts advised that submitting a new reservation hike bill while the previous one remains pending could lead to legal complications.
