Deletion of 26 Castes from BC List Upheld

HYDERABAD:  The High Court on Friday upheld the decision of the Telangana government to delete 26 castes from the list of Backward Classes in the state.

A division bench comprising justices R Subhash Reddy and A Shankar Narayana  dismissed a batch of petitions filed by several students and parents challenging the deletion of 26 castes which included Kalinga, Toorpu Kapu, Gavara, Setti Balija, Nagavaddilu etc. from the list of BCs vide GO Ms No.3 and 16 on the ground of non-existence of those castes in Telangana state.          

Advocate-general K Ramkrishna Reddy said there was absolutely no illegality or  procedural infirmity in the action and the state government had power to amend the list after adapting laws which were in existence in the combined state of AP as per the provisions of Sections 101 and 107 of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014.

While dismissing the petitions, the bench refused to accept the request of the counsel for one of the petitioners for keeping the order in abeyance as a majority of students belonging to the deleted castes  got admission to various professional courses based on an interim order granted by this court earlier.