Beard row: MP school may amend rules

Mohammed Salim,who was expelled from Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School in Sironj town,will not benefit from the amendment but other students will. The school principal had thrown him out insisting that students must be clean-shaven.

The Class XII student of the school located in Vidisha district had challenged his expulsion saying his religion demanded that he sport a beard,but the Madhya Pradesh HC had rejected his petition saying the minority institution had the right to frame its own by-laws.

The SC recently upheld the court verdict,leading to a debate,especially in the Urdu press,which took objections to some remarks made by a judge while passing the order.

Spokesman of Catholic Church Fr Anand Muttungal told The Indian Express that the missionaries run close to 500 educational institutions in Madhya Pradesh but he had not come across such a rule that barred students from sporting beard in any other institution.

Since the courts have already rejected the students petitions,the school and the church authorities will not reverse the expulsion,Muttungal said.