Prescribing uniform in schools does not violate fundamental rights, students cannot object to it: HC

‘KV model of dress code not acceptable as it will lead to social-separateness’

The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday declared that prescription of uniforms in schools does not violate the right to freedom of speech and expression or the right to privacy of the students guaranteed in the Constitution of India.

Observing that school uniforms promote harmony and spirit of common brotherhood transcending religious or sectional diversities, the court also said that “there is absolutely no scope for complaint of manifest arbitrariness or discrimination as per Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, when the dress code is equally applicable to all the students, regardless of religion, language, gender or the like.”

A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S. Dixit and Justice J.M. Khazi made these observations while holding that restriction against wearing of hijab in educational institutions is only a reasonable restriction constitutionally permissible, which the students cannot object to.

The Bench also said that the State Government and the school authorities have power in law to prescribe uniforms.

The prescription of dress code for students, that too within the four walls of the classroom as distinguished from rest of the school premises, does not offend constitutionally protected category of rights, when they are ‘religion-neutral’ and ‘universally applicable’ to all the students,” the Bench said.

“The idea of schooling is incomplete without teachers, taught and the dress code. Collectively, they make a singularity. No reasonable mind can imagine a school without uniform. After all, the concept of school uniform is not of a nascent origin. It is not that, Moghuls or Britishers brought it here for the first time. It has been there since the ancient gurukul days,” the Bench said, while referring to articles of law by various American and British writers on essentialness of uniform in schools..

KV model not acceptable