The Supreme Court on Thursday pronounced a split verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court's judgement refusing to lift the ban on hijab in educational institutions of the state.
The Supreme Court pronounced a split verdict in the hijab ban case (Photo: File/Representative)
A two-judge Supreme Court bench on Thursday delivered a split verdict on the Karnataka hijab ban issue and referred the matter to the Chief Justice, who will now constitute a larger bench to decide the matter. Both judges -- Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia -- made strong remarks for and against the ban on hijab in classrooms in Karnataka. While Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the ban and dismissed petitions, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said he considers education of girls most important.
Here are the top developments.
"Wearing hijab is a matter of choice. The concept of essential religious practices wasn’t essential for resolution of the dispute, Karnataka High Court took the wrong path there. It was about Article 15, it's a matter of choice, nothing more and nothing else," Justice Dhulia said, while allowing the pleas against a Karnataka High Court order that upheld the ban.
When hijab was a matter of choice and nothing else for Justice Dhulia, the applicability of secularism was Justice Hemant Gupta's counterview. The judge said, "Permitting one religious community to wear their religious symbols would be antithesis to secularism."
Justice Hemant Gupta also raised 11 questions in his order, such as whether the Karnataka ban infringes upon fundamental rights and if wearing the hijab is an essential practice under Islam, and said the answer is against the appellant and dismissed the appeal.
Reacting to the split verdict, Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagesh said the state government accepts the Supreme Court's order on the hijab ban issue even though it expected a "better" judgement considering the worldwide protest against hijabs.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party said the condition of women will worsen without hijab. MP Shafiqur Rehman said that girls should roam about the streets under a veil and that the ban on hijab by the Karnataka High Court should have been reversed by the Supreme Court.
Earlier, the Karnataka High Court ruled that the prescription of school uniforms does not violate either the right to freedom of speech and expression or the right to privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution.
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