Attorney General Tushar Mehta, who shows up for the BJP-ruled state, told a bench of judges Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia that the state does not wonder whether hijab is an essential Islamic practice or not.
“The state has legal powers to ask schools to enforce the uniform dress code set by them to promote unity and equality. It is an irreligious and secular order. Educational institutions are not Vedshala or madrasas where students have to wear specific clothes of religious identity, ”Mehta said.
As the state has argued only on its statutory power and has avoided the bait thrown by the Muslim sides by claiming that the hijab is a religious practice, essential or not, to gain protection ConstitutionJudge Dhulia said that the Karnataka high court could have avoided testing the essentiality of the hijab and this too on the basis of scholarly comments and interpretations of the Koran without bothering to enter the original verses of the holy book.
Mehta agreed with Judge Dhulia’s prima facie view on the correctness of HC’s approach to judging the dispute, but said the petitioners turned to HC arguing that hijab was an essential religious practice. but they failed to prove their case even by relying on the Koran.
He said the school uniform must be worn as prescribed. “Enforcing school uniforms does not harm anyone’s religious sensibilities or sensibilities. If each student’s interpretation of the dress code imposed by the religious text is taken into account and the clothes allegedly imposed by the religion can be worn over and over the uniform, there will be no discipline leading to the violation of unity and ‘equality,’ said the SG.
Mehta said hijab is not mandatory, even if you don’t want to apply the essentiality test. “Even women whose religion originated are rebelling against the strict Sharia dress code,” she said.
