Karnataka hijab issue: High Court postponed hearing till tomorrow

Karnataka hijab issue: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday postponed the hearing on petitions filed against a ban on hijab in educational institutions till Friday. The matter was being heard by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi.

During the proceedings, advocate Vinod Kulkarni, whose petition is under consideration, told the court that the hijab issue is creating hysteria and affecting the mental health of Muslim girls. He sought interim relief to allow girls to wear hijab at least on Friday.

Further, senior advocate AM Dar, who is representing five girl students, stated that the order on hijab is affecting his clients and is unconstitutional. The court then asked Dar to withdraw his current petition and granted him the liberty to file a fresh one.

Earlier, the Basvaraj Bommai-led state government had passed a diktat that said that students will not be allowed to wear saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom. The high court, in its interim order pending consideration of all petitions related to the hijab row, last week backed the government’s decision.

Protests had broken out in January this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes for wearing hijab. Following this incident, students of different colleges arrived at Shanteshwar Education Trust in Vijayapura wearing saffron stoles. The situation was the same in several colleges in the Udupi district.

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High schools were reopened across the state on Monday, even as there were instances of students turning up in Hijab and burqa then, only to be denied entry or asked by officials to remove them. The pre-University education board released a circular stating that students can wear only the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious practices will be allowed in colleges.