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.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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