Karnataka High Court upholds hijab ban, claims headscarf not an essential religious practice

Bengaluru, Mar 15: In a major blow to Muslims in Karnataka, the High Court has upheld the ban on hijab imposed by the BJP government in educational institutions.

Even though holy Quran has ruled that covering head is mandatory for all Muslim women, the High Court went on to claim that wearing of Hijab does not form part of essential religious practice of Islamic faith.

Pronouncing its judgment in a batch of petitions over hijab controversy, a three-judge full bench of the court also held that prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to. 

Insofar as the challenge to the Government Order dated February 5, 2022, the court said that the state government has power to issue order and no case is made out for its invalidation.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice J M Khazi said that it had formulated a few questions and answered them.

The four questions that were formulated were:
1)    whether wearing hijab is a part of essential religious practice in Islamic faith protected under Article 25 of the Constitution,
2)     whether prescription of school uniform is not legally permissible as being violative of Article 19 (1) (a) and Article 21 of the constitution, 
3)    whether the Government Order dated February 5, 2022 apart from being incompetent is issued without application of mind arbitrary and hence violates Article 14 and 15 of the constitution,
4)     and finally whether disciplinary action should be taken against the school staff at Udupi Girls PU College.

“We are of the considered opinion that wearing of hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice in Islamic faith. The answer to second question is, we are of the considered opinion that the prescription of school uniform is only reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to. The answer to third question is, in view of above we are of the considered opinion that the government has power to issue the impugned government order dated 5-02-2022 and no case is made out for its invalidation. The answer to fourth question is, we are of the considered opinion that no case is made out in WP 2146/2022 for issuance of a direction for initiating disciplinary enquiry against respondents is rejected being not maintainable,” the bench said.

The bench further said, “Accordingly in the above circumstances, all these writ petitions being devoid of merits are liable to be and liable to be dismissed.” 

After the verdict, CM Basavaraj Bommai urged students to adhere to the Karnataka High Court order. "I request students to give priority to their studies. Come to school, study and attend exams," he said.