BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Friday reserved the verdict of a batch of petitions questioning the order dated February 5, 2022, passed by the state government to ban hijab on school and college campuses.
The full bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi which commenced the hearing on February 10, 2022, reserved the verdict, after a marathon hearing for the last two weeks.
The petitioners-students from Government PU College for Girls at Udupi and several others have challenged the government order.
Purdah or burqa may not be an essential practice but a headscarf or hijab is an essential part of Islam, and two judgments of the Kerala High Court and the Madras High Court, which has gone through Islamic verses and scriptures, have arrived at this conclusion, the petitioners' counsels argued.
In the counter, the state government defended its order. It has been contended that the hijab is not an essential religious practice. Citing several supreme court's judgments, starting from Shirur Mutt to Sabarimala cases, in support of his arguments that wearing hijab is not essential religious practice under Article 25 of the Constitution, Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadagi argued that petitioners-students have placed zero materials to substantiate their claim to declare that wearing hijab is an essential religious practice.
On February 10, 2022, the full bench passed the interim order restraining all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawl (Bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags, or the like within the classroom, pending consideration of the petitions. However, the court made it clear that this interim order is confined to such of the institutions wherein the CDCs have prescribed the student dress code/uniform.