Hijab Ban : No Religious Dress In Colleges During Pendency Of Case, Says Karnataka High Court| LIVE UPDATES [Day 3]

Kamat : Ultimately, what the Court held is that a private minority institution cannot be forced to allow this.

Kamat says that the GO is based on weak foundation. He now takes the bench to the decisions cited in the GO. The first one is the Kerala HC judgment which refused to permit a Muslim student to wear head scarf in a pvt school.

Chief Justice : They are saying their understanding..Come to operative portion. The institutions or persons on whom it is binding they have to go by operative portion of GO.

Kamat : GO issued on Feb 5 suffers from total non application of mind. The three judgements relied on by GO to say that wearing of Hijab is not a fundamental right shows a complete non-application of mind. All these three decisions are totally against the state.

Kamat begins submissions : I will be very brief and my arguments will be for considering interim relief. These are students who have been going to college wearing head scarf till Feb 3 when they were stopped and told unless you remove your head scarf you cannot go in.

Hegde : In this case there should be interim orders which will protect the rights of the petitioners to attend the 3 months of college.

Hegde concludes. 

Hegde points out that the Motor Vehicles Rules exempt Sikhs who wear turbans from the requirement of helmet while riding bikes. Similarly, in the Supreme Court rules, there are provisions for pardansashin women.

Hegde :  There is prima facie case, and a balance of convenience in my favour, denial to attend college will have serious consequences.

Hegde: In the fact of our cases, this is a govt institution, which belongs to every inhabitant of Karnataka and citizens of India. Can you by a rule make a set of citizens forsake their essential tenets of religion?

Hegde refers to the second judgment of the Kerala HC which refused to allow head scarf in a school. Hegde says it was a private minority institution and the situation is distinguishable.