New Delhi: Political parties have welcomed the Supreme Court's decision allowing states to carry out sub-classification within the Scheduled Castes (SCs) to upgrade socially and economically more backward classes, calling it historic.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu welcomed the decision, saying the TDP had taken the first step in this direction in 1996 by setting up the Justice Ramachandra Raju Commission on SC sub-classification.

He said, 'All sections should get justice and social justice should prevail. This is the philosophy of TDP. Sub-classification will be useful to reach the poorest sections.' YSR Congress Party leader A. Suresh said the decision should be used for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes and not for opportunistic politics.

A major obstacle has been cleared

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah termed the verdict as historic and said that this decision has removed a major hurdle in the implementation of quota in reserved categories. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin praised the decision and said that the court has upheld the internal reservation given to the Arunthathiyar community under the Act passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Congress will bring an ordinance to implement sub-classification

Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy welcomed the decision and said that the Telangana government had strongly argued for sub-classification in the Supreme Court. He said that Telangana would be the first state to implement sub-classification. If needed, his government would also bring an ordinance to implement sub-classification in the current job notifications.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao said his party worked sincerely for sub-categorisation from the beginning while other political parties indulged in vote bank politics on it.

Pappu Yadav said that this decision is absolutely correct

CPI(M) said that the Supreme Court had resolved the long pending dispute by accepting the sub-categorization. The party called upon all the governments to take appropriate steps to resolve this. MP Pappu Yadav said that this decision is absolutely correct and that the communities that do not have opportunities should come forward.He stressed the need for a caste-based census for effective implementation. BJP MP Brijlal welcomed the decision, saying it removes economic disparities among SC/ST communities. Congress MP Sukhdev Bhagat described the decision as in line with constitutional principles.