With the Supreme Courtroom delivering a cut up verdict within the Karnataka hijab case, it is going to lead to a establishment on the difficulty of Muslim women carrying hijabs in authorities schools, state Schooling Minister B C Nagesh mentioned on Thursday.
“The decision of the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom will stay legitimate, whereby no non secular practices will probably be allowed in schools, and college students should abide by uniform guidelines wherever prescribed. As per Karnataka Schooling Act, we won’t permit any non secular apply in schools,” the Karnataka faculty schooling minister mentioned.
Whereas the controversy over carrying the hijab was restricted to authorities pre-university schools the place the prescribed uniforms didn’t allow it, the state authorities moved to limit the carrying of hijab in all authorities schools on the again of the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom order of March 2022.
“There has additionally been an anti-hijab motion throughout the globe, following the developments in Iran, and girls are in opposition to carrying the hijab. As a democratic authorities, we welcome the choice of the Supreme Courtroom. Nevertheless, with the matter being referred to the upper bench, we hope that the courtroom delivers a verdict based mostly on the Karnataka Schooling Act,” Nagesh mentioned.
The hijab row began in schools in coastal Karnataka after right-wing outfits objected to women carrying them. It peaked in December 2021 after six college students on the Authorities PU School in Udupi weren’t allowed to attend lessons carrying the hijab because it violated the faculty guidelines.
The ladies protested and the difficulty unfold to different schools with right-wing teams opposing the carrying of the hijab even in schools the place there have been no such restrictions.
On February 5, the Karnataka authorities’s schooling division issued a round suggesting that the carrying of the hijab could be restricted in authorities schools the place uniforms are prescribed.
The stand of the Karnataka schooling division and the Udupi Authorities Junior (PU) School for Girls was challenged within the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom by 5 Muslim lady college students from the Udupi school.
The Karnataka Excessive Courtroom in its March 15 verdict mentioned that the carrying of the hijab will not be a vital non secular apply in Islam and freedom of faith underneath Article 25 of the Structure is topic to cheap restrictions. A full bench of the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom dismissed a batch of petitions filed by the scholars looking for the best to put on the hijab in lecture rooms.
The courtroom additionally upheld the state’s February order that instructed that carrying of hijabs could be restricted in authorities schools the place uniforms are prescribed — and dominated that such curbs underneath norms for faculty uniforms are “constitutionally permissible”.
Following the excessive courtroom order, the scholars approached the Supreme Courtroom. On Thursday, the Supreme Courtroom delivered a cut up verdict with Justice Hemanth Gupta dismissing the appeals of the Muslim lady college students and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia permitting the attraction and stating that the difficulty entails the schooling of women, with the carrying of hijab being a matter of alternative.