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SC TAKES NOTE OF KARNATAKA HC ORDER ON HIJAB BAN

A plea seeking an early hearing of the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court’s order upholding a ban on hijab in educational institutes in the state was mentioned before the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the plea challenging Karnataka HC’s judgement before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India N. […]

A plea seeking an early hearing of the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court’s order upholding a ban on hijab in educational institutes in the state was mentioned before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora mentioned the plea challenging Karnataka HC’s judgement before the bench headed by Chief Justice of India N. V. Ramana. CJI N. V. Ramana said that he would constitute a bench and mentioned that one of the judges was not well and asked the petitioner to wait. CJI also said that if judges had been fine, it would have been listed.

Various petitioners have approached the apex court challenging the Karnataka HC order upholding the Karnataka government’s order which directs strict enforcement of school and college uniform rules. One of the appeals in the top court has alleged the “step-motherly behaviour of the government authorities, which has prevented students from practising their faith and resulted in an unwanted law and order situation”. The appeal said that the High Court in its impugned order “had vehemently failed to apply its mind and was unable to understand the gravity of the situation as well as the core aspect of the Essential Religious Practices enshrined under Article 25 of the Constitution of India”.

“Wearing of the hijab or headscarf is a practice that is essential to the practice of Islam,” it added. The Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decides on the issue.

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