Hijab row: SC declines plea to transfer case from Karnataka HC
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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday declined the urgent listing of a plea seeking transfer of petitions from the Karnataka High Court, which is currently examining the wearing of hijab in schools and colleges.
The top court said that the HC is hearing the matter today and asked, "why should we interfere at this stage". It also refused to give any specific date.
As Senior advocate Kapil Sibal reasoned that the exams are just two months away and his client has filed the petition today (Thursday), the Chief Justice emphasized to let the high court hear the matter first.
When Sibal submitted that the top court could list the transfer petition and keep it pending, the bench said after the top court interferes in the matter, then the high court would never hear it saying the issue is pending before the apex court.
Sibal pressed that he is only asking the top court to list the petition, and if the high court does not pass an order, then this court can transfer it to itself and hear it. After a brief hearing in the matter, the Chief Justice said, "we will see".
The plea filed by Udupi college student Fathima Bushra said: "The said fundamental rights of the Petitioner have been violated with impunity on one hand by the Respondent No.2 which has denied entry to the Petitioner into the college, thereby debarring her from attending her regular classes until the Petitioner and similarly situated girls remove their headscarf/hijab".
A full bench of the Karnataka high court, comprising chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justices Krishna S Dixit and JM Khazi, will hear a bunch of petitions filed by some Muslim girls studying in government pre-university colleges in Udupi district against the ban at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed to outsiders to not disturb the peace of school campuses and elsewhere across the state amid an uneasy calm following days of protests over the controversy.