Karnataka: Karnataka HC resuming the Hijab row on Wednesday said that the interim order was applicable to students of both degree colleges and Pre-University (PU) Colleges, where uniform has been prescribed. It clarified that the HC proposal was imposed on students only and not the teachers.
The order came after a guest lecturer in a private college in Karnataka had resigned after she was allegedly asked not to wear a hijab or display any religious symbol.
The bench of Chief Justice also Ritu Raj Awasthi sought details on Campus Front India’s role from the state govt. It was on January 6th; six girls attended a press conference held by CFI in the coastal town protesting against college heads denying them entry into the classrooms wearing hijab. Till then students were permitted to enter the campus with their hijabs while had to remove them in order to attend classes.
The Karnataka Education Dept on Tuesday asked colleges and schools to create separate enclosures for female students to remove their hijab inside the campus emphasizing the interim order that stated Hijab was not allowed in the classroom and students had to remove it.
“We request the state government and other stakeholders to reopen the education institutions and allow the students to return to the classes at the earliest. Pending consideration of all these petitions, we restrain all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing saffron shawls, scarfs, hijab, religious flags or the like within the classroom until further orders. We make it clear that the order is confined to such of the institutions wherein the College Development Committees have prescribed the student dress code/uniforms,” the order signed by Padmini SN, undersecretary, Department of primary and secondary education read.