Fri, 29 March 2024
The Daily Ittefaq

Karnataka High Court upholds ban on hijab

Update : 15 Mar 2022, 14:27

The Karnataka High Court, India on Tuesday dismissed petitions filed by a section of Muslim students from the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi, seeking permission to wear Hijab inside the classroom, saying the headscarf is not a part of the essential religious practice in Islamic faith.

"The prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to," a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, also including Justices Krishna S Dixit and Khazi Jaibunnisa Mohiuddin, further noted. 

Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh welcomed the order and described it as “landmark." “We are of the considered opinion that wearing of Hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice in Islamic faith," Chief Justice Awasthi, who headed the full bench of the High Court, said reading out portion of the order.

By the said order, the state government had banned wearing clothes which disturb equality, integrity and public order in schools and colleges. The court also rejected the plea to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against the college, its principal and a teacher. 

"In the above circumstances all these writ petitions being devoid of merits are liable to be and accordingly are dismissed. In iew of the dismissal of the writ petition, all the pending applications fell into insignificance and are accordingly disposed off," the bench said in its order.

The demand by a section of girls in a Udupi pre-university college to wear Hijab inside their classrooms erupted into a major row after some Hindu students turned up in saffron shawls with the issue spreading to other parts of the state, even as the government insisted on a uniform norm.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed for calm after the ruling. "I request everybody to follow the high court order and maintain peace and order," said Bommai. "And allow the children to do their education as usual," he added.

 

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