NEW DELHI: Two petitioners - an 18 year old Muslim girl student and father of another - on Wednesday requested the
Supreme Court for urgent listing of their applications seeking interim stay on the ban on wearing religious clothings in
Karnataka government schools and colleges to enable them wear hijabs in accordance with their religious beliefs while appearing in board examinations next month.
Two Udupi residents - 18-year-old Shafa and another Muslim girl's father Abdul Shukur - pleaded for urgent stay of the February 5, 2022 circular banning wearing of religious clothes, including hijab and saffron shawls, by students in government run schools and colleges, to enable Muslim girl students to take this years' PUC board examinations.
The application said like these two, many Muslim girls preferred not to take the examination last year over not wearing hijab to appear in the tests. They should not be forced to lose another academic year, which would cause irreparable damage to their academics and future careers. They said after the Karnataka HC upheld the validity of the state circular, many Muslim students also lost an academic year because of the hijab ban.
CJI D Y Chandrachud agreed for an early hearing of their plea.
Karnataka hijab row: SC agrees to hear the plea of Muslim girl students
On October 13 last year, a 2-J bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia had returned a split verdict on the validity of the February 2022 circular of the state banning students from wearing religious clothings to the schools and PUCs. The matter was referred to a 3-J bench, which the CJI would now constitute to decide which of the diametrically opposite views was correct. Until such time, and unless the new bench stays circular, no student could wear religious clothings to government-run schools and PUCs.
Interestingly, the application attached a document which said that practical PUC board examinations were scheduled between February 6-20. The advocate mentioning the application informed the bench that the examinations are scheduled for next month.
Even the applicants said, "If the Impugned Government Order is not stayed, this state of affairs for the appellants will continue, while another batch of hijab adorning Muslim girls will be forced to drop out or be retained in the same year upon failing to write PUC Board exams that are due to be conducted in February, 2023."
They said no State other than Karnataka has instituted any restriction, let alone a ban, on the wearing of hijab in schools or colleges. They said the SC's split verdict demonstrated "prima facie merit in the appellants’ contentions. Justice Dhulia’s judgement declaring the Impugned GO as unconstitutional reflects, at the very minimum, reasonable disagreement as to the constitutional validity of the GO, which is sufficient to make out a prima facie case for the grant of interim relief."
"The purpose and object of interim relief is to protect against injuries to fundamental rights that are not repairable once inflicted. The indignity of being forced to choose between a secular (and affordable) education and one’s cultural identity expressed via forms of dress is not an injury that is capable of repair." they said.
"The rate of dropouts among Muslim girls has steadily increased since the imposition of the hijab, as PUCs prevent girls from writing their exams and attending classes while wearing the hijab. After the Karnataka HC judgment, the appellants were left with no choice but to drop out of their school. After losing a year, they have now joined a private unaided institution (Al-Ihsan Women’s PU College, Mulur) to be able to pursue their studies in a manner compatible with their dignity," they said.