Karnataka Hijab Row: Wearing Of Hijab Not Essential Religious Practice In Islam, Says HC

The Karnataka High Court ruled that wearing of Hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islamic Faith. The prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction on fundamental rights, the HC said on Tuesday while dismissing all the writ petitions filed by Muslim girl students seeking permission to wear Hijab in colleges.

According to the court it has framed the following questions:

1, Whether wearing hijab is ERP in Islamic faith protected under Article 25

2, Whether whether the prescription of school uniform is violative of rights.

3, Whether GO of Feb 5 apart from being incompetent and manifestly arbitrary violates Articles 14 and 15.

BCCL

"Our answers to the questions are, wearing of Hijab by Muslim women does not form Essential Religious Practice in Islamic faith. Our second answer is prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible which students cannot object to. In view of the above, the government has power to issue the GO of February 5 and no case is made out for its invalidation," Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, who read out the judgment in the open court, said.

Ahead of the the verdict, all schools and colleges in Dakshina Kannada district were ordered to be closed on the day even as prohibitory orders have been imposed in several places. "We are declaring holiday for all schools and colleges for tomorrow...external examinations would be there as per schedule... but internal exams of all schools and colleges will be postponed. Issuing prohibitory orders in the entire district," Dr Rajendra KV, Deputy Commissioner, Dakshina Kannada district said on Monday.

The full bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi delivered its verdict in the case that had gained international attention after daily hearings that went on for two weeks.

Karnataka High Court

The bench was constituted on February 9 on a petition filed by girls from Udupi who prayed that they should be allowed to wear Hijab even inside the classroom along with the school uniform as it was part of their faith.

What was the controversy?

The controversy began in January after a group of Muslim students from a government college in Udupi alleged that they were prevented from entering the classroom wearing hijab.

AP

This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear hijab in classes which was not allowed. Till then, students used to wear the headscarf to the campus, but entered the classroom after removing it, college principal Rudre Gowda had said.

"The institution did not have any rule on hijab-wearing since no one used to wear it to the classroom in the last 35 years. The students who came with the demand had the backing of outside forces," Gowda had said.

Days later another college in Karnataka - the state-run Government Degree College in Balagadi of Chikkamagaluru District also reported a similar incident.

A group of female Muslim students stated wearing Hijabs to the college, violating a three-year ban on it after a previous incident there.

IANS

To protest this, a group of Hindu students who had earlier opposed the Muslim students wearing hijabs started wearing saffron scarfs and shawls to the college.

Later this spread to other colleges and schools across Karnataka, and many Muslim students and even teachers alleged that they were being harassed for wearing Hijabs.

A group of students also approached the Karnataka High Court with a plea for them to be allowed to attend classes, and wear hijabs.

They had argued that wearing Hijab was essential in Islam and it was a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution of India.

BCCL

The Karnataka Government, however, told the High Court that hijab is not an essential religious practice. Citing several supreme court's judgments, starting from Shirur Mutt to Sabarimala cases, in support of his arguments that wearing hijab is not essential religious practice under Article 25 of the Constitution, Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadagi argued that petitioners-students have placed zero materials to substantiate their claim to declare that wearing hijab is an essential religious practice.

Reuters

On February 10, the HC passed the interim order restraining all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawl (Bhagwa), scarfs, hijab, religious flags, or the like within the classroom, pending consideration of the petitions.

The HC had concluded the hearing in the contentious case on February 25 and reserved its verdict.

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