Journalism of Courage
This is an archive article published on February 22, 2023
Karnataka hijab ban: Students move SC, seek permission to give exams wearing headscarves
Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said he will take a call on the request to list the plea for hearing.
The plea seeks to enable some Muslim girl students from Karnataka to give their exams in government colleges where there is a ban on wearing the headscarf. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav/File)
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Karnataka hijab ban: Students move SC, seek permission to give exams wearing headscarves
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Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday said he will take a call on the request to list for hearing a plea to enable some Muslim girl students from Karnataka, who said they had shifted to private colleges after the hijab ban in the state’s pre-university colleges, to give their exams in government colleges where there is a ban on wearing the headscarf.
Appearing for the petitioners, advocate Shadan Farasat said they had already lost one year and sought urgent listing of the application.
The court wanted to know why they were not being allowed to take the exam to which the counsel said this was because they continued to wear the headscarves and hence were not being allowed inside the examination hall.
“I will take a call,” the CJI responded.
In October 2022, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on appeals challenging the March 15, 2022, Karnataka High Court judgment upholding the ban on wearing the hijab in classrooms in pre-university colleges.
While Justice Hemant Gupta (now retired) upheld the high court order validating the ban and said “it was only to promote uniformity and encourage a secular environment” in classrooms, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia set aside the state and high court orders and called the right to wear the hijab in classrooms “a matter of choice” and a “fundamental right”.
This means the matter now has to be heard by a three-judge bench. The Chief Justice of India, being the master of the roster, will decide the bench that will take up the matter.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
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