The Karnataka government has brazenly twisted the interim order of the High Court on the hijab controversy to intimidate and humiliate Muslim girl students and teachers. Students and teachers being denied entry to the campus or being made to remove their hijab and burqa on the road in the full glare of television cameras made a pathetic sight. If the intent was to send a ‘strong message’ to the minorities and thereby appease the right-wing, especially in the light of the elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states, the ruling BJP did indeed succeed. Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police remained mute spectators as they were perhaps under instructions from the top to implement an order that does not exist. In its interim order dated February 10, the court restrained all students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls, scarfs, hijab, religious symbols or the like in classrooms, until further orders. The court added, “We make it clear that this order is confined to such of the institutions where the College Development Committees (CDC) have prescribed a student dress code/uniform.” In other words, the order is applicable only to students and not to teachers; wearing of religious attire or symbols are banned in colleges and not in schools; the order will apply only to colleges where the CDC has mandated a dress code or a uniform; and even in such colleges, the students can sport religious attire within the campus, but not in the classroom. Thus, there is absolutely no ambiguity in the interim order.
Yet, the government has passed an illegal notification barring Muslim girls from wearing the hijab even in schools run by the Minority Welfare Department though the court order is clearly not applicable to them. When the matter was brought to the notice of the court by the petitioners, the Advocate General assured that nobody would act beyond the scope of the interim order, but subsequently, 58 students who turned up at their colleges wearing the hijab were suspended.
Now, the government has issued a notification that the court order would be applicable only to students and not to teachers. It has also clarified that students can wear the hijab on campus and not in the classroom. But for this concession, the deliberate misinterpretation and abuse of the court order continue. While the Chief Justice has assured that the case would be disposed of at the earliest, the court should take strong notice of the government’s contemptuous behaviour and issue a clarification on its interim order so that young students are not put to anymore harassment.