Hijab ban: Can right to practice religion be taken to school having prescribed uniform, asks SC

The Supreme Court on Monday orally observed that the Karnataka government’s order to college development committees to prescribe uniforms did not seem to violate the right to education. During the resumed hearing of a clutch of appeals challenging the ban on wearing hijab in government colleges in Karnataka, SC asked the appellants how students could wear whatever they chose in an educational institution which had a prescribed uniform.

“You say educational institutions cannot issue a rule but what about the state unless there is a statute which prohibits dress code?

Can a student come in minis, midis, whatever they want,” a bench of justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia asked the petitioners. While every person had the right to practice religion of choice, the question to be decided was whether the same could be carried to an education institution which prescribed a dress code.


“You may have a religious right but can you take that right to an educational institution where a uniform is prescribed? You may be entitled to wear the hijab or scarf, but can you carry the right within an educational institution which prescribes uniform? They are not denying the right to education. What they are saying as state is you come in uniform,” the bench said in its observation.

Appearing on behalf of some of the appellants, advocate Rajiv Dhawan said a constitutional issue must be referred to a constitutional bench. The HC had upheld the ban on hijab by the Karnataka government in schools and colleges.