Hijab row: SC says it will protect fundamental rights of citizens, take up plea at appropriate time
New Delhi(PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday said 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.
We will see, the CJI said when Kamat insisted on listing of the plea for urgent hearing.
A three-judge bench of the Karnataka High court, hearing the 'hijab' issue on Thursday, asked students not to insist on wearing any cloth on campuses of educational institutions which can instigate people, till the matter is resolved.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
