NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear the appeal filed by a group of college students, challenging the Bombay High Court's verdict upholding the ban imposed on a private college in Mumbai on the wearing of the hijab, nakab, burkha, cap, etc., by students on its campus.
The bench of the top court, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud did not fix any particular date to hear it but assured the petitoners for a hearing soon.
"I have already assigned a bench to hear the matter and it would be listed soon in the coming days," the CJI said.
The lawyer appearing for the petitioners cited urgency in the matter and pleaded the apex court to hear it. "The unit tests will take place soon; please list it, my lords," the lawyer told the SC.
Primarily, the authorities of the NG Acharya & DK Marathe College in Mumbai had prescribed a dress code prohibiting their students from wearing hijab, nakab, burkha, stole, cap, etc., on campus.
Challenging this order, a batch of petitions were filed by nine female students before the Bombay High Court.
On hearing these batch of pleas, the HC's two-judge bench, led by Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Rajesh S Patil, had on June 26, refused to entertain.
The bench said that the insistence on following the dress code is within the college premises and the petitioners' freedom of choice and expression is not otherwise affected.
Subsequently, these students moved the top court by filing an appeal before it challenging the HC's order and seeking quashing of it. The petitioners had challenged the dress code on the ground that restrictions on hijab, nakab, burka etc. on the campus violate their fundamental rights.
"Under the dress code, the dress of the students is expected to be formal and decent and should not reveal the religion of any student," the plea said. Pointing out that the college was wrong in its order in trying to make a dress code, the plea of the students also said the dress code was arbitrary and discriminatory.
"It infringes upon their right to choose their attire, their right to privacy, and their right to expression under Article 19(1)(a) and their right to freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution," it said.