BENGALURU: The student-petitioners who challenged the ban on wearing Hijab in educational institutions on Thursday told the Karnataka High Court that the Karnataka Education Act-1983 does not have any provision of penalty for infraction of uniform.
Advocate Sanjay Hegde, who appeared on behalf of students from Kundapura before the full bench of the Karnataka High Court, said the penalty clause prescribed in the KEA-1983 largely restricted to college management.
He said the Act has provision to impose fine for copying, malpractices and loitering.
"There is, however, no penalty for infraction of uniform," Hegde contended before the full-bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi.
The bench was constituted on Wednesday night to hear the Hijab case after the single bench of Justice Dixit referred it to the CJ saying a larger bench may hear it.
According to Hegde, the petitioners have been wearing their regular head scarves along with their uniform but the college management insisted that they should remove it to attend classes.
Since December the petitioners have faced discrimination and they were made to stand out of the class though his clients said head scarves were their religious and cultural practice, Hegde argued.
Intervening in the argument, Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi pointed out that after the girls started coming to the colleges wearing Hijab, some other students started coming wearing saffron shawls leading to chaos.
As a result, the state declared holidays for three days in the schools and colleges till Friday.
AG Navadgi also said the educational institutions decided the school uniform based on the state government's directive.
Noting that the state government was keen to resume the classes, he said it was difficult for children as some want to wear head scarves, while other want saffron scarves.
Advocate Devadatt Kamat, who appeared for students from Udupi, said the issue was not related to uniform as the students have been following it.
According to him, the students only wanted to wear the head scarves of the same colour.
The state government has issued an order saying head scarf cannot be worn -- a religious culture of the girls, which cannot be curtailed, Kamat said and pleaded that the girls should be allowed continue to wear head scarves and go to the college.
"Our fundamental right is held hostage to the college development committee. The government order says prohibition of head scarves is not a violation of Article 25. The GO is not as innocuous as the state government says," Kamat argued.
The lawyer for Udupi students also cited verses from Quran which said it was incumbent upon women to cover their heads before anyone other than close family members.
However, Sanjay Hegde underlined that the case was not just restricted to religious practice but "a case of essential education for the girl child".
"We had Dr Ambedkar who was made to sit apart in the school. After so many years of independence, I do not want any kind of separation," the senior advocate said.
The Hijab row started in December end when a few students started coming to the government pre-university college in Udupi wearing Hijab.
To protest against it, some Hindu students turned up wearing saffron scarves.
The controversy spread to other educational institutions in different parts of the State, and the protests took a violent turn at some place earlier this week compelling the state government to announce three days' holiday from Wednesday.