Hijab row: After 11 days of marathon hearing, Karnataka High Court reserves verdict

New Delhi, February 25

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After 11 days of marathon hearing, the Karnataka High Court on Friday resereed its verdict on petitions filed by some Muslim girls challenging ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions in the state on the ground that it’s an essential practice of Islam.

“Heard. Order reserved,” said a Full Bench led by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, which heard several senior counsel for the petitioners and Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, besides some advocates representing teachers and College Development Committees having local MLAs as their members.

The Bench asked the parties to file their written submissions, if any.

Set up on February 9, the Chief Justice Awasthi-led Bench also included Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice Jaibunnisa M Khazi. It heard on a day-to-day basis for 11 days petitions filed by some girl students challenging the ban on wearing hijab in educational institutions where a particular uniform has been prescribed.

The petitioners were allegedly denied entry into a pre-university college for girls in Udupi in December last for violating the dress code.

The state government has insisted that the state high court must decide if hijab was an essential practice of Islam, saying it’s important to decide the issue as the petitioners have asserted it as a part of their right to religion.

Several Muslim girls have challenged the Karnataka government’s February 5 order restricting students from wearing clothes that could disturb peace, harmony and law and order.

The Karnataka High Court had on February 10 restrained students from going to educational institutions wearing religious dress. The Supreme Court had refused to intervene in the hijab controversy even as it asserted that it will protect the constitutional rights of everyone and will take up the matter at the appropriate time.