CJI agrees to hear Muslim girl students’ plea to appear for exams wearing hijab
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New Delhi: On request from some Muslim girl students from Karnataka, the Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud, has said he would look into listing the hearing of a plea that sought they be allowed to enter government colleges wearing hijabs for taking exams.
In their plea, the students said that they had taken admission to private institutions following the Karnataka government's order banning hijab inside government institutions.
Advocate Shadan Farasat, who appeared for the students in the apex court, said that the students had already lost one year due to the order in the wake of a split verdict from the Supreme Court.
Hearing the grievance, the CJI said that would “take a call” soon on setting up a three-judge bench to take up the matter in view of a split verdict of two judges in a related matter in October.
The Supreme Court in last October delivered a split verdict while hearing a batch of petitions that challenged the Karnataka High Court order that effectively banned the wearing of all kinds of religious symbols inside the classrooms.
While Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the Karnataka High Court’s order endorsing the state government to enforce a uniform in schools, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia differed in terming the hijab a matter of choice that the state cannot stifle.
Justice Gupta dismissed all appeals against the Karnataka high court judgment, which held that wearing the hijab by Muslim women is not mandatory in Islam.
Justice Dhulia, who differed and allowed all the appeals, said that wearing the hijab is a matter of choice for a Muslim woman and there cannot be any restriction against it. He quashed the state government’s prohibitory notification.