Hijab Verdict Challenged: Now, All India Muslim Personal Law Board Moves Supreme Court

New Delhi: The last has not been heard of the hijab controversy which dominated headlines for weeks.

The Karnataka High Court’s March 15 order, upholding the ban on wearing hijab (headscarf) in educational institutions, has been challenged by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB).

The Board and two ‘practising Muslim women’ have filed a petition in Supreme Court stating that the high court’s verdict “deprives the constitutional rights of Muslim girls to practise Hijab along with the school uniform” and “curtails religious freedom and constitutional rights of Muslim women/girls”.

Stating that the ground reality is that the petitioners are “compelled to remove their hijab to avail the right of education, at the cost of self-respect and dignity”, the petition said “practising Muslim women (Munisa Bushra Abedi and Jaleesa Sultana Yaseen) themselves wear hijab in public spaces in exercise of their Constitutional rights”.

The petition further said that the high court had framed “totally erroneous questions which have distracted itself from the real issues arising out of the record before… the discussions on diverse constitutional principles have resulted into conceptual overlapping leading to indirect discrimination”.

The petition contends that the verdict is also a “case of direct discrimination against Muslim girls and also ignores the doctrine of reasonable accommodation… it has widely opened the door of interference with the religious freedom guaranteed under the Constitution”.

A student who had initially petitioned against hijab ban, has also moved the apex court against high court’s verdict. The Supreme Court, however, is yet to fix a date for the hearing.

The Karnataka High Court, after hearing all parties for 11 days, dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Muslim girls studying in Udupi seeking the right to wear hijabs in classrooms.