Telangana: Quota for BCs a legal obligation, not political gesture: Former BC Commission chief

Says legal hurdles could be avoided by providing statistical data and get the reservation Bill passed by both the Houses unanimously

Hyderabad: Former BC Commission chairman Vakulabharanam Krishnamohan Rao has urged the State government to fulfil the statutory obligations on its part to ensure the implementation of 42 per cent reservation for the BCs in the State in a hassle-free process.

In a statement on Thursday, he said legal hurdles could be avoided by providing statistical data and get the BC reservation Bill passed by both the Houses unanimously.

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Reacting to the ongoing debate over delayed implementation of reservation for BCs in local bodies, he asserted that the move was not a political concession but a constitutional obligation. The Bill passed unanimously by both Houses of the Telangana Legislature to ensure 42% BC reservation was not a symbolic gesture, but it represented a long-overdue correction of structural inequality, he said.

He pointed out that though BCs constituted over 56 per cent of the State’s population, their representation in local bodies remained limited to just 21 per cent. In the education and employment sectors too, their share is capped at 29 per cent. Providing 42 per cent reservation is not just about numbers. “It’s about justice, equity, and fulfilling a constitutional promise,” he emphasized. Because of the delay in receiving the governor’s assent, the legislation was in limbo.

He cautioned that unless the state government backed the bill with solid empirical data and followed it up through the due legal process, the quota could face judicial hurdles. He referred to several landmark Supreme Court judgments- Indra Sawhney (1992), Krishna Murthy (2010), Vikas Gawali (2021)- and most recently, the Gaurav Kumar case in the Patna High Court (2023), which struck down a 64% quota in Bihar due to lack of supporting data.

“These rulings make it clear that courts will not entertain reservation policies without robust social and statistical justification,” he noted. He outlined a three-step approach for the State government to secure the governor’s assent through a constitutionally valid process- publishing comprehensive data to justify the reservation, and seeking constitutional protection by placing the law under the Ninth Schedule. He sounded a caution against premature politicization of the issue. He stated that protests in Delhi or blaming the Centre before completing the legal process only weakens the cause.