Two judges are scheduled to make a ruling at 10:30 am on petitions challenging the ban on hijabs, or headscarves worn by some Muslim women, at schools and colleges in Karnataka.
After hearing arguments for ten days, a panel of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia had reserved its decision on the appeals of the Karnataka High Court’s September 22 decision refusing to abolish the hijab prohibition.
Due to Justice Gupta’s impending retirement from the bench on Sunday, a decision on these petitions was expected this week.
Attorneys for the petitioners said during the hearing before the Supreme Court that allowing Muslim girls to attend class while wearing the hijab would jeopardise their education because they would quit going.
They had brought up a number of issues, such as the February 5, 2022 state government order banning the wearing of clothing that disturbs equality, integrity, and public order in schools and colleges. They had also compared hijabs to the bindis or ghoongat worn by Hindus and the turbans worn by Sikhs.
Additionally, some supporters have contended that the case should be heard by a five-judge constitution panel.
The state’s attorneys claimed that the Karnataka government directive that caused the dispute was “religious neutral.”
The state’s attorney had argued in the Supreme Court that if the government had not acted in the way it did, it would have been “guilty of dereliction of constitutional duty,” insisting that the movement in favour of wearing the hijab in educational institutions was not a “spontaneous act” by a small number of people.A group of Muslim students at the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi, Karnataka, had petitioned the high court on March 15 to be allowed to wear the hijab in class, but it was denied since it is not an essential component of Islamic faith. Some Muslim females appealed the state government’s ruling from February 5, 2022, to the high court. The high court’s decision has been contested in a number of pleas in the highest court.
