Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 2: The Karnataka High Court’s decision to uphold the ban on the hijab in state-run educational institutions was challenged in a number of petitions, which the Supreme Court said it would convene a bench to examine on Tuesday. The court also noted that one of the justices was ill, which caused a delay.
A bench made up of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari, and Hima Kohli took note of senior attorney Meenakshi Arora’s arguments on behalf of one of the appellants that the appeals against the high court ruling had been filed in March but hadn’t yet been scheduled for a hearing.
“I will constitute a bench. One of the judges is not well,” the CJI said, adding “Wait. If the judges would have been alright, the matter would have come.”
Notably, the top court on July 13 had agreed to hear the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict on the issue.
Then, attorney Prashant Bhushan brought out how “the girls are losing out on schooling and have been encountering hardships,” among other things. Before that, the high court’s appeals decision on March 15 which denied requests for permission to wear the hijab in class was also scheduled for an urgent hearing on April 26.
The Karnataka High Court’s ruling that the wearing of the hijab is not a component of the fundamental religious practice that can be protected under Article 25 of the Constitution has been challenged in a number of cases brought before the Supreme Court.
A group of Muslim students from the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi petitioned the high court to be allowed to wear the hijab in class, but it was denied.
According to the high court, the need of wearing school uniforms is just a reasonable constraint that is constitutionally allowed and to which the pupils cannot protest.
