Kamat : Now coming to Article 19. It has been held that right to freedom of expression includes dress.
Kamata : The amendment was negatived. Dr.Ambedkar does not accept this.
Kamat : Now coming to Article 19. It has been held that right to freedom of expression includes dress.
Kamat : The amendment was moved by one Mr. Tajammul Hussain. "No peson shall have any visible sign or mark or name and shall wear any dress where any religion is recognized".
Justice Gupta : Why the Constituent Assembly rejected the amendment (to prohibit display religion in public).
Kamat : Dr.Ambedkar said it was not needed, I will place the debates.
Justice Gupta : Even in the absence of the word, we were secular. Secularism and socialism as words were added in Constitution as political statements later.
Kamat : And the Government is resurrecting a provision proposed in the Constituent Assembly Debates which sought to prohibit display of religion in public.
Justice Gupta : Secularism was not there in the original constitution.
Kamat : Word was not there but the spirit was there.
Justice Gupta : I am talking about the word.
Kamat : The question is about reasonable accommodation not about whether visible or not.
Justice Gupta : Rudraksh or Cross is different. They are worn inside dress, not visible to others. There is no violation of discipline.
Kamat : And the GO is against positive secularism. It is targeting one community.
Justice Gupta : Your reading of GO may not be correct, because it is only one community which wants to come in religious dress.
Kamat : When I used to go to school, I used to wear namam. Students wear Rudraksha, Cross, namam.
J Gupta : What is the diktat of the GO?
Kamat : The mighty State is telling that Hijab is no part of Article 25 and asks School Committees to decide.
J Dhulia : So the school commitees have no option but to ban?