Hijab not an essential practice of Islam, rules Karnataka High Court

Bench upholds ban on headscarf in classrooms; plea in SC against HC verdict

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday said Hijab was not part of the essential religious practice in Islamic faith and effectively upheld the ban against the headscarf in educational institutions in the state by dismissing pleas from Muslim girls seeking nod to wear it in classrooms.

A three-judge full Bench of the High Court said the prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to, even as the aggrieved petitioner Muslim girls said they would continue their legal battle and termed today's order as "unconstitutional." The court suggested the possibility of some 'unseen hands' behind the hijab row to engineer social unrest and disharmony and expressed dismay over the issue being blown out of proportion during the academic term.

A plea challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict was filed in the Supreme Court on Tuesday by a Muslim student who was one of the petitioners before the high court.

The row that broke out at Udupi in January this year soon spread to other parts of the state before witnessing national repercussions, with voices for and against the headscarf, even as it resonated in some foreign countries like Pakistan.

Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi-led bench said, "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." The other two judges in the panel were Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi.

It rejected the plea to initiate a disciplinary inquiry against the college, its principal and a teacher.

The court also said that school uniform will cease to be a uniform if hijab is also allowed. “We are dismayed as to how all of a sudden that too in the middle of the academic term the issue of hijab is generated and blown out of proportion by the powers that be,” the Bench noted.

State Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said everyone should abide by the verdict of the High Court and cooperate with the state government in implementing it.  

Muslim Personal Law Board and organisations of other religious groups to appeal against the order.

Won’t go to college sans hijab: Muslim girls

The Udupi Muslim girls whose petitions seeking permission to wear hijab inside the classrooms were dismissed by the Karnataka High Court said on Tuesday they will not go to college without hijab and fight the case legally till they get “justice”.

They also claimed the verdict was ‘unconstitutional’.

“We had approached the High Court seeking permission to wear hijab in the classrooms. The order has come against us. We will not go to the college without hijab but we will fight for it. We will try all the legal ways. We will fight for justice and our rights,” one of the girls said in a press conference in this coastal town.

“The verdict which came today is unconstitutional...the constitution itself provides us (our rights) to follow my religion and whatever I can wear," the girl stated and also referred to a government order on February 5 banning any cloth that disturbed peace, harmony and public order on the campus.