New Delhi: A lawyer on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to give an urgent hearing to an application seeking to allow girl students to appear in examinations in colleges in Karnataka wearing headscarf. Advocate Shadan Farasat apprised a bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud about the split verdict on the Hijab issue and therefore Muslim girls are not allowed to enter colleges wearing headscarf.
Advocate Shadan Farasat said that he has moved an intervening application whereby the prayer is only to let the girl student to take part in the exam wearing headscarf. He submitted that students have lost a year. He also informed the court that exams are beginning on March 9.
CJI DY Chandrachud sought to know why are the students to appear in exams. The lawyer replied that they are not allowing entry with hijabs and he wants that the intervening application gets listed. CJI DY Chandrachud said that he will take a call on this.
The top court has earlier given a verdict on various petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court order which upheld a ban on Hijab in educational institutes. Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeal while Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed it. The matter was thereafter referred to the Chief Justice of India for appropriate direction due to divergent opinions.
The judgement was given by a two-judge of justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia. The court was hearing various pleas against Karnataka HC's judgement upholding the Karnataka Govt decision to direct educational institutes to prescribe uniforms in educational institutes.
Various petitioners have approached the apex court challenging the Karnataka HC order upholding the Karnataka government's order which directs strict enforcement of schools and colleges' uniform rules. Karnataka High Court last year held that the prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction that students could not object to and dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on Hijab in education institutions saying they are without merit. The Hijab row had erupted in January last year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing the hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside the college over being denied entry.
After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka. As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decided on the issue. On February 5 2022, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students could only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire would be allowed in colleges. (ANI)
