UDUPI: One of the Muslim students at Women’s Government PU College in Udupi, who has been fighting for the right to wear the headscarf inside classrooms, has approached the Karnataka High Court. The student, Resham Farood, has petitioned the court to declare wearing hijab a fundamental right under Articles 25 and 14 of the Constitution.
Shathabish Shivanna, the advocate for the student, told The New Indian Express that he moved a memo for posting the petition before a bench of the High Court explaining the urgency as students are not being allowed to attend classes with headscarves. ‘’The preliminary hearing may come up within a week,” he said.
An appeal has also been made to pass an interim order directing the college authorities to allow the students to attend classes till the final order is passed, he added. On Monday, a meeting held to resolve the issue ended inconclusively as the development committee of the college and the students refused to change their stands.
Kin to consult elders on headscarf issue
While the college committee insisted that the students wearing headscarves will not be allowed, the students and their parents at the meeting said they would convey their decision after consulting elders at home. The meeting, chaired by college committee president and Udupi MLA K Raghupathi Bhat, was attended by Karnataka Beary Sahitya Academy member Rahim Uchil and other Muslim leaders.
At the closed-door meeting, Rahim Uchil reportedly told the students that it was right on their part to insist on wearing headscarves, but they should not vitiate the academic atmosphere in an educational institution. “I told the students that as citizens of India, they should uphold constitutional values,” he told reporters after the meeting.
MLA Bhat said the students were told not to come to the college if they continued with their stand. He said the police have been told to be present on the campus to restrict the entry of members of any outside organisations and mediapersons which affects the academic atmosphere on the campus, making it difficult for other students to focus on their studies. Sources from the Campus Front of India, which initially took up the cause of the Muslim students, told TNIE that the students will not budge.