The Supreme court on Thursday, while dismissing petitions requesting urgent hearing of the case against the Karnataka High Court’s verdict upholding the power of educational institutions to ban wearing of hijabs inside the premises, asked the lawyer to not “sensationalise” the issue.
The top court also declined to give any specific date to hear the petitions.
Responding to a request that the matter be heard next week as it would otherwise stop the girl students from appearing for their exams, Chief Justice of India N V Ramana said: “This has nothing to do with the exams…don’t sensationalise.”
Appearing for the petitioners, Senior Advocate Devadatt Kamat said the exam will start from March 28. “One year will go. All these girls are being prevented from entering the school. Lordships may fix some date next week.”
The SC had denied an urgent hearing plea into the matter earlier as well.
On March 15, a full bench of the Karnataka High Court dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Muslim girls studying in pre-university colleges in Udupi seeking the right to wear hijabs in classrooms. The HC ruled that wearing the hijab “does not make up an essential religious practice in the Islamic faith” and freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution is subject to reasonable restrictions.
The HC also upheld an order issued by the state government on February 5, which suggested that wearing hijab can be restricted in government colleges where uniforms are prescribed, and ruled that such curbs under norms for college uniforms are “constitutionally permissible”.
The HC concluded that there was no case for initiating disciplinary action against government college authorities in Udupi for barring girls from attending classes with the hijab and sought a “speedy and effective” police probe into the alleged role of “unseen hands” that may have been “at work to engineer social unrest and disharmony” over the issue in the state.
