SC partly stays Mumbai college circular banning hijab, burqa, cap and naqab on campus
Asks if college will ban girls wearing 'tilak', 'bindi'
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday partly stayed a Mumbai college circular banning 'hijab, burqa, cap and naqab' on the campus and said girl students must have the freedom to choose what they wear.
Educational institutions, it said, cannot force on them their choice.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar issued notice to the Chembur Trombay Education Society, which runs the ‘N G Acharya and D K Marathe College', and sought its response by November 18.
"Girl students must have freedom of choice in what they are wearing and college cannot force them...It's unfortunate that you suddenly wake up to know that there are many religions in the country," the bench told the college administration at the centre of a fresh row over a dress code for Muslim students.
It added why the college did not ban 'tilak' and 'bindi' if it intended the religious faiths of the students to not be revealed.
"Will the students' names not reveal their religious identity?" the bench asked senior advocate Madhavi Diwan, appearing for the educational society.
The court, however, said no burqa can be allowed to be worn by girls inside the classroom and no religious activities can be permitted on the campus.
The bench said its interim order should not be misused by anybody and granted liberty to the educational society and the college to approach the court in case of any misuse.
The top court was hearing a plea challenging a Bombay High Court verdict upholding the college's decision to ban hijab, burqa and naqab inside the campus.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves and advocate Abiha Zaidi, appearing for the petitioners, including Zainab Abdul Qayyum, submitted that students were not able to attend classes because of the ban.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
