Hijab ban: We will go by Constitution, observes Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday took up the hearing of petitions filed by students of the Government PreUniversity College for Girls Udupi demanding permission to attend classes wearing hijab The bench headed by Justice Krishna S Dixith is expected to give the ruling on the issue todayDuring the hearing the Karnataka High Court said ldquowe will go by reason by law not by passion or emotions We will go by what Constitution says Constitution is the Bhagavad Gita for merdquoAdvocate General told Karnataka High Court ldquoautonomy is given to colleges to decide uniforms says students who want relaxation shall approach the College Development CommitteerdquoSenior Advocate Devdutt Kamat appearing for the petitioner said ldquoWearing of headscarf is an essential part of Muslim culturerdquoThe hijab row started after a few students in Udupi Government PreUniversity College started wearing hijab last month and were turned out of classrooms The students refused to attend classes without hijab and the college administration on the other hand took a firm stand to allow them only if they shun hijabThe controversy now has been discussed at international levels The hijab issue continues to haunt college campuses across the state as protesting students are not relenting and made their stand clear that they will only attend classes by wearing hijab The issue has taken a communal turn with the Hindu students too wearing saffron shawls They are maintaining that until the Muslim students shun hijab they wont take off saffron shawlsThe college authorities are not allowing the students to enter colleges with hijab and saffron shawls with the help of police The issue has snowballed into a major controversy and threatening law and order situation in the stateThe students who filed petitions are Ayesha Hajeera Almas Resham Farooq Alia Assadi Shafa Shameem and Muskaan Jainaab They are represented by their mothers in the court and advocate Mohammad Tahir Another student Resham Farroq has filed a separate petition through advocate Shatabish Shivanna The court will hear the petitions togetherThe students in the petition have submitted that the college authorities have refused them the right to attend classes only because they wear hijab The petition has claimed that Udupi BJP MLA Raghupathy Bhat is illegally interfering in the activities of the college and has been made a party in the caseThey have further requested the court to issue directions to the government to not to interfere with their religious and fundamental rights They mentioned that wearing hijab is an essential part of their religionThe students have also explained in their petition that they wore hijab along with uniform The petitioners explained that the Principal Vice Principal and lecturers humiliated them for wearing hijabThey further stated that the students belonging to Islam and wearing hijab were denied entry into the college on December 28 2021 They were asked to bring their parents and when their parents came the college authorities didnt meet them and made them wait for the whole day the petitioner explained The students have submitted two petitions to the High CourtThe Principal Secretary Primary and Secondary Education Department Director of PreUniversity Education Department Deputy Director of Udupi PreUniversity College District Commissioner of Udupi Principal of Udupi PreUniversity College will file objections to the court regarding the petition by the students to allow them to wear hijab while attending classesThe petitioner students have made Rudre Gowda Principal of Udupi PreUniversity College Vicepresident Gangadhar Sharma seven lecturers parties in the caseThe petition also seeks to order an investigation on the Principal of Udupi College for violating guidelines by the PreUniversity Deputy Director and direction to the college authorities to mark their attendanceThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever