A bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia will hear a batch of petitions challenging the ban on wearing #Hijab in educational institutions in #Karnataka.A batch of 23 petitions was listed before the bench. Some of them are writ petitions filed directly before the Supreme Court seeking the right to wear hijab for Muslim girl students. Some others are special leave...
A bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia will hear a batch of petitions challenging the ban on wearing #Hijab in educational institutions in #Karnataka.
A batch of 23 petitions was listed before the bench. Some of them are writ petitions filed directly before the Supreme Court seeking the right to wear hijab for Muslim girl students. Some others are special leave petitions which challenge the judgment of the Karnataka High Court dated March 15 which upheld the hijab ban. In the last hearing of the matter, the petitioners had sought request of adjournment of the matter for two weeks. However, the cout orally observed that it would not permit "forum shopping" and issued notice to the State of Karnataka and proceeded to post the matter on September 5, 2022.
The SLPs has been filed against the judgment dated March 15 passed by the High Court of Karnataka, upholding Government Order dated 05.02.2022, which has effectively prohibited Petitioners, and other such female Muslim students from wearing the headscarf in their Pre-University Colleges. A Full Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit and Justice JM Khazi held that wearing of hijab by women was not an essential religious practice of Islam. The Bench further held the prescription of uniform dress code in educational institutions was not violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioners.
J Gupta : I think Mr.Dhavan will take over. You will be finish in 2 hours?
Dhavan : I think Kamat is waiting in line.
Kamat : I will be very brief.
J Gupta to Kamat : You will wrap up in half hour?.
Kamat : Yes.
J Gupta : Mr.Dhawan, be ready on Wednesday.
J Gupta : Alright, we will continue..tomorrow we have a constitution bench, so we will continue day after tomorrow at 2 PM.
Justice Gupta : There are schools run by Christians? Are they allowing Hijab?
AG : They are not.
Hegde : Some are allowing.
Justice Dhulia : What is the composition of CDC?
AG : There are representatives of parents, teachers, students, local MLA...
J Gupta : So some of them have not allowed hijab?
AG : Yes.
Justice Gupta : And what is your stand regarding govt colleges?
AG : We have left it to the College Development Council and some of them, like Udupi PUC, have taken a decision to not allow hijab.
Justice Dhulia : Suppose there is a minority institution, there may be hijab?
AG : Yes, there may be. We have left it to the institution. In Karnataka, there might be institutions of Islamic managements allowing hijab. There is no govt interference.
AG : The Govt Order is not very happily worded, but the purport of the order is to follow the prescribed uniform.
AG : Once the students realized that institutions prohibited hijab invoking Rule 11, they elevated their argument that our rights under Article 25 are violated.
AG : This Govt order does not violate the rights of the students. We are not saying don't wear hijab or wear hijab. We don't say either way. We only say follow the uniform prescribed.
AG : State was very conscious, that we will not prescribe uniforms. As per Rule 11, uniforms are prescribed by the institutions. We directed institutions to prescribe uniforms. Some of the institutions prohibited hijab. Those resolutions have not been challenged.