The Karnataka High Court has given an important decision on the Hijab row and said that wearing Hijab is not a compulsory religious practice of Islam. Along with this, the court has upheld the ban on hijab.
On the other hand, the decision of the Karnataka High Court was also challenged in the Supreme Court on Tuesday itself. The matter of banning hijab in educational institutions of Karnataka has now reached the Supreme Court. In this, a stay order has been demanded on the decision of the High Court. This petition has been filed on behalf of a Muslim student Niba Naaz. But this girl is not among those 6 petitioners, who had filed a petition in the High Court regarding Hijab.
A three-member bench of the High Court, in its decision, said, “Students cannot refuse to wear uniform.” Along with this, the High Court dismissed the writ petition of Muslim girls, in which girl students were asked to wear hijab in colleges. Permission was sought. The court clearly said, “Wearing hijab is not a compulsory religious practice.”
Other petitioners, including a dozen Muslim students, had told the court that wearing the hijab was a fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution of India and the essential practice of Islam.
Eleven days after the hearing, the High Court had reserved its decision on 25 February.
The Karnataka High Court has said in its decision that no case should be registered for violation of the order of the government. The full bench of the High Court had completed its hearing in the matter last month.
The full bench comprises Chief Justice Rituraj Awasthi, Justice JM Khaji and Justice Krishna M Dixit.
Earlier, during the hearing of the case, the Karnataka government had argued in the court that hijab is not a necessary religious practice and religious instructions should be kept outside educational institutions.
State Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi told the full bench of the Karnataka High Court hearing the hijab case, “We are of the stand that hijab is not a necessary religious tradition. Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar had said in the Constituent Assembly that ‘we should put our religious instructions outside the educational institutions”.
On February 5, the Karnataka government had banned the wearing of hijab in schools and colleges. Protests were held against this in many cities of Karnataka.
After this, the matter reached the High Court, where on February 10, the court had temporarily banned all kinds of religious costumes in educational institutions. After this, girl students and teachers wearing hijab were barred from entering schools and colleges in many parts of the state.
