NEW DELHI: A constitutional court must speak in "one voice" as far as possible and split verdicts do not resolve a dispute, Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said on Thursday disagreeing with the verdict of Justice Hemant Gupta in the Karnataka hijab ban case.
A bench of Justices Gupta and Dhulia delivered split verdicts in the case and said the matter be placed before the Chief Justice of India for constitution of an appropriate bench.
While Justice Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the March 15 judgement of the Karnataka High Court which had refused to lift the ban on hijab, Justice Dhulia held there shall be no restriction on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf anywhere in the schools and colleges of the state.
"I had the advantage of going through the judgement of Justice Hemant Gupta. Justice Gupta has recorded each argument which was raised at the Bar before us in the long hearing of the case and he has given his findings on each of the issues. It is a very well composed judgement," Justice Dhulia noted in his 73-page separate verdict.
"I am, however, unable to agree with the decision of Justice Gupta. I am therefore giving a separate opinion, on this important matter," he said.
Justice Dhulia said he is conscious that as far as possible, a constitutional court must speak in one voice.
"While I do so, I am conscious that as far as possible, a constitutional court must speak in one voice. Split verdicts and discordant notes do not resolve a dispute. Finality is not reached. But then to borrow the words of Lord Atkin (which he said though in an entirely different context), "finality is a good thing, but Justice is better'," he noted in his verdict.
Justice Dhulia set aside the high court verdict which had refused to lift the ban on hijab in educational institutions of the state.
On March 15, the high court had dismissed the petitions filed by a section of Muslim students of the Government Pre-University Girls College in Karnataka's Udupi seeking permission to wear the hijab inside classrooms, ruling it is not a part of the essential religious practice in Islamic faith.