Hijab Row: Karnataka High Court's Remarks Challenged In Supreme Court
NDTV
The girl's petition challenges the Karnataka High Court's order allowing educational institutions in the state to open for now but with no religious clothing on campus.
A girl in Karnataka has approached the Supreme Court after the High Court yesterday advised students to avoid wearing "religious garments", for the sake of "peace and tranquillity", until it decides on a case involving hijab restrictions in schools and colleges.
The girl's petition challenges the Karnataka High Court's order allowing educational institutions in the state to open for now but with no religious clothing on campus.
Schools and colleges were shut down earlier this week in an escalating row over hijab restrictions in class. The protests that began against a hijab ban in one government-run college in Udupi spread to many other institutions where girls wearing hijabs were not allowed entry. As saffron scarf-wearing students launched rival protests, violence at one college forced the police to fire teargas to control the flare-up.
"We will request and not only request but pass an order to allow the institutions to resume but till the matter is pending before the court, these students and all stakeholders will not insist on wearing religious garments, that is, headdress or saffron shawl or anything. We will restrain everyone on that thing because we want peace and tranquillity in the state," the Karnataka Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi said on Thursday while hearing a petition challenging the hijab restrictions.
