SC judges deliver split verdict on hijab ban
Two Supreme Court judges delivered a split verdict today on whether Karnataka’s ban on the hijab in classrooms should stay or go and called for a larger bench to take it up.
While Justice Hemant Gupta backed the hijab ban, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said he “respectfully disagreed” with him as he considered the education of girls most important.
Both judges made very strong remarks as they pronounced their orders.
Justice Dhulia stressed on secularism, constitutional freedoms, and enabling girls’ education. “Amongst many facets of our Constitution, one is Trust. Our Constitution is also a document of Trust. It is the trust the minorities have reposed upon the majority,” Justice Dhulia said.
“It is necessary to have discipline in schools. But discipline not at the cost of freedom, not at the cost of dignity. Asking a pre-university schoolgirl to take off her hijab at her school gate, is an invasion on her privacy and dignity,” the judge said.
“One of the best sights in India today is that of a girl child leaving for her school in the morning, with her school bag on her back. She is our hope, our future. But it is also a fact, that it is much more difficult for a girl child to get education, as compared to her brother,” Justice Dhulia observed.