Hijab row: Indian Supreme Court to hear Muslim students' petitions

The Supreme Court will hear next week a bunch of petitions against the Karnataka high court's verdict on March 15 that wearing of hijab by Muslim women does not form a part of essential religious practice in Islam.

"Next week, it will come before the appropriate bench," Chief Justice of India NV Ramana told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who urged the CJI to set down the matter for a hearing. Bhushan pointed out that the petitions were filed in March but have not come up even for the preliminary hearing yet.

It was last on April 26 when the cases were mentioned before justice Ramana and the CJI then said he would consider fixing a date of hearing. The matter was, however, not listed soon. Subsequently, the vacation benches in top court took up mostly the urgent matters between 23 May to 10 July when it was shut for summer break.

In March, the CJI declined to put a date to hearing these cases on two separate occasions when the lawyers for the petitioners urged for an urgent hearing of their appeals to assail the Karnataka high court's 15 March verdict.

On March 16, the CJI refrained from indicating any date of hearing after senior counsels Sanjay Hegde and Devadatt Kamat implored the court to urgently list the matter. Hegde appeared for girl student Niba Naaz while Kamat represented another student, Aishat Shifa.

Again, on 24 March, justice Ramana declined to assign a date of hearing, observing that cases pertaining to the ban on hijab have nothing to do with school examinations and the matter should not be sensationalised.

On that day, solicitor general Tushar Mehta also intervened on behalf of the Karnataka government and opposed urgent listing of the petitions.

Dismissing a bunch of petitions filed by some girl students pressing wearing of hijab as their religious right protected under the Constitution, the high court upheld the state government's authority to prescribe uniform in educational institutions under the Karnataka Education Act while declaring that "adherence to dress code is a mandatory for students".

Hours later, Niba Naaz filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, arguing that that the high court erred in creating a dichotomy of freedom of religion and freedom of conscience wherein the court has inferred that those who follow a religion cannot have the right to conscience.

"The Hon'ble High Court has failed to note that the right to wear a hijab comes under the ambit of 'expression' and is thus protected under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It is submitted that clothing and appearance fall within the ambit of the right of expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution," it added.

Aishat Shifa, another petitioner before the high court, also filed an appeal in the Supreme Court a day after the high court judgment. The petition by students of PU College in Udupi – the epicentre of the original protests seeking to wear the hijab – was mentioned by Kamat for an urgent hearing on March 16 when the court said it would look into the plea but did not set down the cases for hearing.