Hijab Row: Karnataka bans gatherings, protests near schools, colleges for 2 weeks

Hijab Row: The Karnataka government on Wednesday prohibited any sort of gatherings, agitations or protests within 200-metre radius of the school gate, PU colleges, degree colleges and similar educational institutions in Bengaluru city.

The rule will stay in place for two weeks with immediate effect over the ongoing Hijab row. Meanwhile, the Karnataka cabinet has decided to wait for the High Court’s verdict on the ‘hijab’ row, before taking any further decision on the matter, which has snowballed into a major controversy.

The Karnataka High Court’s single bench of Justice Krishna Dixit has referred all petitions challenging the ban on hijab in colleges to a larger bench. The Karnataka HC was hearing the matter on a batch of petitions challenging the state government’s order dated 5 February, which prohibited any cloth other than the prescribed uniform, which disturbed peace, harmony and, law and order.

Last week, the government had issued an order making uniforms prescribed by it or management of private institutions mandatory for its students at schools and pre-university colleges across the state.

A massive protest march, led by Muslim women of several organisations, was taken out in Karnataka’s Kalburgi on Wednesday demanding Hijab be allowed in the state’s educational institutes as the government reiterated its position of “no-compromise” on its circular to ban headscarves in public schools and colleges.

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The holiday has only been announced for 3-day high school-colleges tomorrow in Karnataka. Students wearing saffron shawls have warned that our fight will continue if the court orders a hijab.

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It is against this backdrop that the Karnataka Government has announced a three-day holiday for school and college. Speaking to media Karnataka Higher Education Minister Ashwath Narayana said that 3 days school vacancies have been announced in the wake of the uniform dispute in the state colleges.