Days after the Supreme Court rejected an urgent hearing on the hijab row, the Karnataka High Court’s three-member bench adjourned the matter for Tuesday afternoon after resuming the hearing on Monday. Last week, in an interim order, the court had restrained students from wearing any ‘religious garment’ in classrooms of colleges wherever it is banned until a final order is given.
As hijab-related protests were intensifying across Karnataka, with a few incidents turning violent, state’s chief minister Basavaraj Bommai warned ‘trouble makers’ of legal action and schools were asked to remain shut till Sunday. The state government had clamped Section 144 in sensitive areas for a week and extracted assurances from the community members that they won’t escalate the hijab row further, a Times of India report stated.
After the high court’s hearing, a girl in Karnataka had approached the Supreme Court with a petition challenging the High Court’s remarks that educational institutions in the state can open for now but with no religious clothing on campus, for the sake of peace.
However, declining an urgent hearing on the petition, Chief Justice NV Ramana said, “Don’t spread these things to a national level. We will interfere only at an appropriate time.” The girl’s petition had challenged the Karnataka High Court’s remarks that educational institutions in the state can open for now but with no religious clothing on campus, for the sake of peace.
The widespread protests began against the hijab ban after three colleges in Karnataka had stopped the entry of hijab-clad female students into the college premises, which later spread to many other institutions where girls wearing hijabs were not allowed entry. While the girls were protesting to wear hijabs, the rest of the students belonging to different communities launched a ‘saffron scarf’ protest, which turned violent at one college and forced the police to fire teargas to control the flare-up.
The student who has challenged the High Court’s comments says in her appeal to the Supreme Court that practical exams begin on February 15 and “any interference on students’ access to educational institutions will impede their education”.
Reacting to the SC’s decision, Congress leader Kapil Sibal, a senior lawyer, urged the Supreme Court to take up Fathima Bushra’s petition, saying the issue is “spreading across the country”, Chief Justice Ramana had said: “We will see.”
The bench had given an interim order last week that no religious symbols are allowed for the students in schools and colleges until the final order of the court. The order banned both hijab and saffron shawls inside the school and college premises.
“We want to make an interim order on the matter of hijab row. The peace has to return to the state. Schools and colleges must open soon. This is not the final order. Until the final order is given, students must attend schools in uniform without hijab or saffron shawls,” CJ Awasthi had opined on Thursday.
“We will hear the matter and issue orders soon,” he had further said.
The larger bench also set aside the vehement arguments of petitioners seeking orders to the government for allowing students to wear hijab in classrooms.
However, petitioners moved the Supreme Court challenging the interim order banning hijab in classrooms. The Supreme Court had rejected the demand of urgent hearing by petitioners and said that it will only interfere at an appropriate time.
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