BENGALURU: The full bench of Karnataka High Court on Tuesday confirmed the State Government’s order of February 5, banning the hijab in classrooms and prescribing uniform, by categorically holding that the government has powers to issue such an order and that no case was made out by the petitioners for its invalidation.
“Prescription of school dress code to the exclusion of hijab, bhagwa, or any other apparel symbolic of a religion can be a step forward in the direction of emancipation, and more particularly, to the access to education. It hardly needs to be stated that this does not rob women of the autonomy or their right to education inasmuch as they can wear any apparel of their choice outside the classroom”, the bench said.
The full bench, comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justices Krishna S Dixit and J M Khazi pointed out that the impugned order was issued in the interest of public order, considering the possibility of social unrest and public agitations.
The judges also noted that the extent of autonomy is enormous at home, since ordinarily, the residence of a person is treated as his inviolable castle. However, it is said that in ‘qualified public places’ like schools, courts, war rooms, defence camps, etc., the freedom of individuals, as of necessity, is curtailed consistent with their discipline, decorum, function and purpose. No reasonable mind can imagine a school without uniform. After all, the concept of school uniform is not of nascent origin. It is not that the Mughals or the British brought it here for the first time. It has been there since the ancient gurukul days, they said.
Holding that accommodating students to wear the hijab in the colour of the dress code, like in the Kendriya Vidyalayas, which would establish a sense of social separateness and is not desirable, the bench held that the petitioners have not made out a case to issue directions to initiate disciplinary inquiry against the college authorities, including the principal, for not adhering to the guidelines and writ of quo warranto against the college development committee chairman and MLA Raghupathi Bhat and vice chairman Yashpal Anand Sharma, for allegedly interfering in the college administration.
'Unseen hands engineering social unrest'
"From the submissions made on behalf of the respondent – the PU College at Udupi — and the material placed on record, we notice that all was well with the dress code since 2004. We are also impressed that even Muslims participate in festivals that are celebrated in the ‘Ashta Mutt Sampradaya’, (Udupi being the place where eight Mutts are situated). We are dismayed how all of a sudden, that too in the middle of the academic term, the hijab issue cropped up and was blown out of proportion.
The way the imbroglio unfolded gives scope for the argument that some ‘unseen hands’ are at work to engineer social unrest and disharmony. We are not commenting on the ongoing police investigation, lest it is affected. We have perused and returned copies of the police papers that were furnished to us in a sealed cover. We expect a speedy and effective investigation into the matter and the culprits brought to book, brooking no delay”, the full bench observed.