A student had moved the apex court challenging Karnataka High Court’s interim order asking students not to wear any ‘religious garments’ till it decided on the matter
New Delhi Muslim students hold placards during a protest against banning Muslim girls wearing hijab from attending classes at some schools in Karnataka. AP
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected to urgently hear the appeal, saying it will protect the constitutional rights of every citizen and take up at an appropriate time the pleas challenging a direction of the Karnataka High Court asking students not to wear any religious cloth in educational institutions.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana was told by senior advocate Devdutt Kamat, appearing for the students, that the high court order has led to the “suspension of fundamental right to practice religion under Article 25 of the Constitution” and the plea be listed for hearing on Monday.
The top court referred to the ongoing hearing in the case, and said, “We will protect the fundamental right of every citizen and will take it up at an appropriate time.”
An NDTV report had Chief Justice NV Ramana quoted as saying, “Don’t spread these things to a national level. We will interfere only at an appropriate time.”
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state, also pointed out that the interim order has not yet come out and that Kamat should have pointed that out.
The court’s statement came after an appeal was filed earlier in the Supreme Court challenging the direction of the Karnataka High Court.
The plea filed by a student had sought a stay on the direction of the high court, which is hearing the hijab issue, as well as the proceedings going on before the three judge bench.
The appeal contended that the high court has sought to curtail the fundamental right of Muslim student women by not allowing them to wear the hijab.
The high court has posted the matter for Monday and also said educational institutions can resume classes for students.
The three-judge full bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna S Dixit, which was formed on Wednesday, also said it wants the matter to be resolved at the earliest but till that time peace and tranquillity is to be maintained.
“Till the disposal of the matter, you people should not insist on wearing all these religious things,” Awasthi had said.
“We will pass an order. Let the schools-colleges start. But till the matter is resolved, no student should insist on wearing religious dress”, he had said.
The hijab row started in December end when a few students started coming to a government pre-university college in Udupi wearing Hijab. To protest against it, some Hindu students turned up wearing saffron scarves.
The row spread to other educational institutions in different parts of the State, and the protests took a violent turn at some place earlier this week, prompting the government on Tuesday to declare three days holiday for the institutions.
With inputs from PTI
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