The Supreme Court is to take up on Monday a batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment that upheld the right of educational institutions to ban wearing of hijab in Pre University colleges of the state.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia would consider the matter on August 29.
Notably, the plea challenging the March 15 judgment was filed in the top court within hours but the court had refused repeated requests for hearing.
On Monday, a batch of 24 petitions filed by individuals as well as several NGOs like All India Democratic Women's Association, Women's Voice, Forum for Secular Theo-Democracy, Muslim Girls and Women's Movement, Muslim Women's Study Circle are listed before the court number seven in the top court.
On March 24, the court had asked the petitioners not to sensationalise the issue when senior advocate Devadatt Kamat on behalf of girl students said that they would lose one academic year if they are denied permission to wear headscarf and appear in examinations beginning March 28.
A three-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court led by Chief Justice (since retired) Ritu Raj Awasthi, and comprising Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi had on March 15 upheld the ban on wearing hijab in classrooms for not being a part of essential religious practice in the Islamic faith. It had dismissed a plea for permission to wear hijab in classrooms, saying prescription of uniform was a reasonable restriction.
Questioning the HC's verdict, the petitioners claimed that wearing hijab was protected under the fundamental rights to privacy, expression and conscience guaranteed under the Constitution.
They also contended the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, and the Rules made thereunder, do not provide for any mandatory uniform to be worn by students.
They also claimed the High Court's order had created an unreasonable classification between the non-Muslim female students and the Muslim female students.
Published 28 August 2022, 14:06 IST
