NEW DELHI: Students challenging Karnataka HC’s verdict of upholding ban of hijab on Monday told the SC that women wearing hijab must not be looked upon as caricatures but must be looked upon with dignity.
“Women who wear hijab must not be looked upon as caricatures. They must be looked upon with dignity. They are strong-willed women and they feel they have got the power because of this. Nobody can impose their judgments on them,” Senior Advocate Yusuf Mucchala said while urging the bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia to refer the matter to a constitution bench.
Referring to certain documents highlighting the violation of the Muslim girls' right to violation due to non-acceptance of their cultural and religious rights, the senior advocate said, “merely for wearing a piece of cloth overhead, education is not denied. Wearing a turban is not objected to. If you tolerate that, you are tolerating diversity.”
It was also the senior advocate’s contention that denial of entry to the students wearing hijab had resulted in violation of the fundamental right to access education, personal dignity, privacy as well as right to practice religion and that these rights were supplementary to each other.
Justice Gupta the presiding judge of the bench at this juncture remarked that the HC merely said that the right to conscience and the right to practice religion were mutually exclusive.
During the hearing, Mucchala had contended that the HC should not have gone into the interpretation of the Quran. Responding to his arguments, the bench said that the HC had no choice but to do so since it was argued that wearing of hijab ban was an essential religious practice.
“Constitution clearly provides that court should not lay down religion for people to follow, court should not interpret religious scriptures,” Mucchala had said.
Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid also appearing for the students submitted that wearing of hijab was a matter of religion, culture, conscience, culture and dignity.
“We will not say uniform must be dispensed with but there is something in addition with the uniform which should be permitted,” Khurshid had also said.
While posting the matter for Wednesday, SC hinted that it intended to conclude hearing of the pleas challenging HC’s order till September 16. In this regards asked the parties assailing the ban to conclude its arguments till Thursday and the state to conclude in two days.