The Chief Justice of India has agreed to list the hijab case appeal in two days. The CJI Ramana stated, “I will list it, wait for two days”, to senior advocate Meenakshi Arora when she raised the petition filed against the Karnataka high court’s judgement in the hijab case for urgent listing.
The Special Leave Petition has been booked against the judgement passed on March 15 by the HC of Karnataka. Supporting the government order dated 5 February, led to the ban of petitioners and female Muslim students from wearing the headscarf in their Pre-university colleges.
A bench of the high court consisting of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit, and Justice JM Khazi concluded that the wearing of hijab by women is not a part of religious practice in Islam. The bench also said that the suggestion of the uniform dress code in educational institutions was not offensive to the fundamental rights of the petitioners.
Despite an urgent listing petition registered on March 30, the case has not been listed for hearing.
Advocate-on-Record Shadan Farasat, listed two reasons in the application:
Firstly, the petitioners and other Muslim girls are being denied permission to write their annual PUC examination unless they take off their headscarves.
Secondly, in light of the disputed judgement, a large number of hijab-wearing Muslim girls similar to the petitioners are forced to drop out.
Most recently, a month back, the CJI turned down a plea for the urgent listing of the appeals against the Karnataka high court’s verdict sustaining the hijab ban in schools and colleges.
The CJI said, “exams have no connection with this issue,” when the petitioner’s counsel said that Muslim students won’t be able to attend exams.
