Anushka Pathak – Mumbai Uncensored, 15th March 2022
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court 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 Centre has welcomed the verdict of the Karnataka High Court. Welcoming the verdict, Union Minister Prahlad Joshi said, “I welcome the Court’s decision. I appeal to everyone that the state and country have to go forward, everyone has to maintain peace by accepting the order of the High Court. The basic work of students is to study. So, leaving all this aside they should study and be united.”
The three-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court, while dismissing a batch of petitions filed by a group of female Muslim students, said, “We are of the considered opinion that wearing of Hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice in the Islamic faith.”
The ruling was passed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi who headed the full bench of the High Court. The other two judges in the panel were Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi.
The prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to, the three-judge bench of the court further noted.
The bench also said that the government has the power to issue an impugned order that is dated February 5, 2022, and no case is made out for its invalidation. By the said order, the state government had banned wearing clothes that 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 view 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.
On January 1 2022, six female Muslim students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into the classroom wearing Hijab.
This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear Hijabs in classrooms which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear Hijab to the campus and entered the classroom after removing the scarves, the college principal Rudre Gowda had said.
“The institution did not have any rule on Hijab-wearing as such and no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces,” Gowda had said.
Amidst the protests against Hijab by Hindu students of Karnataka, a 26 year old boy named Harsha was killed in Shivamogga by Islamists. Harsha was a member of the Hindu organisation, Bajrang Dal, and was seen sporting saffron shawls to demand uniformity in the dress code of schools and colleges in Karnataka. The six arrested in the murder of Harsha have been identified as Qasif (Kasif), Syed Nadeem, Mujahid, Rihan alias Qasi, Afan and Asif.
