Karnataka Hijab row: SC to set up bench to hear plea of Muslim girls for nod to take exam in headscarf

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to set up a three-judge bench to hear a plea of Muslim girl students to sit for examinations in Karnataka government schools while wearing hijab.

"I will list it immediately after the Holi vacation. I will create a bench," said a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala, without specifying any date.

The matter was last mentioned for urgent hearing by lawyer Shadan Farasat on behalf of the students.

The court had said it will take a call on listing a plea for allowing Muslim girl students to sit for examinations in Karnataka government schools while wearing hijab.

The counsel pleaded the bench to take up the case saying, Hijab-wearing students have already lost a year because of the ban. "What about this academic year? Should they lose this also," the counsel asked. To this, the CJI said, "I can't answer your questions. A bench will be constituted after Holi break."

In October last year, the SC delivered a split verdict on the ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions in Karnataka - one judge affirmed that the state government is authorised to enforce uniform in schools, while the other called the hijab a matter of choice that cannot be stifled by the state.

While Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeals against the Karnataka High Court Court, which refused to lift the ban and held that the hijab is not part of the "essential religious practice" in Islamic faith, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the pleas and said wearing the hijab is ultimately a "matter of choice".

However, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia differed from the senior judge on the bench and allowed all the appeals. Reading out the operative part of his judgment, Justice Dhulia said the wearing of hijab is "ultimately a matter of choice, nothing more, nothing less".

"The main thrust of my judgment is that this entire concept of essential religious practices, in my opinion, was not essential for disposal of the dispute," he said.