What the Karnataka High Court had said on hijab ban

New Delhi, Oct 13: The Supreme Court today delivered a split verdict on the hijab ban in Karnataka.

Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia had reserved the order following a marathon ten day hearing. The students had filed an appeal against the HC order which had held that prohibition on hijab in classrooms was a reasonable restriction and that hijab was not essential religious practice in Islam. Justice Gupta rejected the 26 appeal filed against the verdict of the High Court.

On March 15, the Karnataka High Court had rejected petitions filed by a section of Muslim students seeking permission to wear hijab inside classrooms. The court had stated that wearing of hijab was not essential religious practice in Islam.

The three judge Bench of the High Court said, "firstly, we are pained by the ongoing agitations and closure of educational institutions since the past few days, especially when this Court is seized off this matter and important issues of constitutional significance and of personal law are being seriously debated.

It hardly needs to be mentioned that ours is a country of plural cultures, religions and languages. Being a secular State, it does not identify itself with any religion as its own, the Bench said.

Every citizen has the right to profess and practise any faith of choice, is true. However, such a right not being absolute is susceptible to reasonable restrictions as provided by the Constitution of India.

Whether wearing of hijab in the classroom is a part of essential religious practice of Islam in the light of constitutional guarantees, needs a deeper examination, the court also said.

Ours being a civilised society, no person in the name of religion, culture or the like can be permitted to do any act that disturbs public peace and tranquility. Endless agitations and closure of educational institutions indefinitely are not happy things to happen, the Bench noted.

The hearing of these matters on urgency basis is continuing. Elongation of academic terms would be detrimental to the educational career of students especially when the timelines for admission to higher studies/courses are mandatory. The interest of students would be better served by their returning to the classes than by the continuation of agitations and consequent closure of institutions. The academic year is coming to an end shortly. We hope and trust that all stakeholders and the public at large shall maintain peace and tranquility, the Bench said.

In the above circumstances, we request the State Government and all other stakeholders to reopen the educational institutions and allow the students to return to the classes at the earliest. Pending consideration of all these petitions, we restrain all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls (Bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags or the like within the classroom, until further orders, the Karnataka High Court said.

We make it clear that this order is confined to such of the institutions wherein the College Development Committees have prescribed the student dress code/uniform, the Bench said.