Rohith Vemula Bill: Telangana forms panel to accelerate drafting of anti-discrimination law

Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka on Thursday directed officials to expedite the drafting of the Rohith Vemula bill, proposed to end identity-based discrimation in higher educational institutions. The move follows Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's letter to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy last year urging him to enact a 'Rohith Vemula Act' to prevent discrimination in educational institutions.

The Deputy CM chaired a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee constituted to formulate the Rohith Vemula Telangana (Prevention of Identity-Based Discrimination in Higher Education) Bill, 2026 and directed officials to constitute a dedicated panel to speed up the drafting process, an official release said. He asked offcials to prepare a comprehensive preliminary draft detailing procedures and provisions related to the new law, it said. Vikramarka also suggested studying the draft legislation being prepared in neighbouring Karnataka and incorporate best practices from there.

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He said the legislation would be formulated through extensive public consultations across the state and invited suggestions and inputs from leaders of various political parties, student associations and others. The Cabinet Sub-Committee will approve the draft after taking into account all opinions expressed on the matter.

To ensure that the law does not face any legal challenges in the future, Supreme Court advocate and social activist Disha Wadekar was invited as a special guest for consultations, he said. He noted that her experience, including an LLM from Columbia Law School (New York), would greatly help in making the legislation comprehensive and legally sound, the release said.

The Deputy CM reiterated the state government's commitment to permanently putting an end to identity-based discrimination against students in higher educational institutions. Rohit Vemula, a Dalit student, allegedly died by suicide at the University of Hyderabad due to caste-based discrimination in 2016. Vemula's death had snowballed into a political controversy with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi taking on the central government in Parliament and the then Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani slamming alleged attempts to project it as a caste battle.