The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday continued hearing petitions filed against wearing hijab in educational institutions. The court had earlier passed an interim order banning wearing hijab, saffron shawls (bhagwa) while attending classes in Karnataka colleges.
On Monday, the state government told the high court that the petitioners were claiming that wearing of hijab was an essential religious practice, making it obligatory for every Muslim woman to bind to a particular dress code.
On Tuesday, Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi, appearing on behalf of State of Karnataka , said, "One of the arguments which has been advanced by the petitioners is that their right is traced independently to Article 19(1)(a) to wear the dress in exercise of right of freedom of expression. That argument is mutually destructive and contrary to present preposition."
Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi said the right to wear the headscarf or hijab falls under the category of 19(1)(A) and not Article 25 as has been argued by the petitioners.
He added, "You cannot argue both Article 25 and Article 19(1)(a).
When the court asked if the two are mutually exclusive, the advocate General state, "They are mutually destructive."
The Advocate General said that "any dress is declared "essential" to a religion, the consequences are that every person (in that community) MUST accept it. It is an element of compulsion."
To this, Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi asked, "Suppose if someone wants to wear it under Article 19(1)(a) and you are restraining it then are you not restricting their fundamental right?"
Advocate General Navadgi said, " There is no ban on hijab in the country. The right to wear hijab under 19(1)(a) is subject to reasonable restrictions under 19(2). In our case, Rule 11 places reasonable restriction for institutional discipline."
"Our case is that so far as the present case is concerned, Rule 11 places reasonable restriction as a matter of institutional discipline. There is no ban on wearing hijab in the country, but every institution has internal regulation and discipline," the AG held.
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He stated that every institution has institutional discipline. It may be hospitals, schools, military establishments.
"The independent claim of Article 19(1) cannot go together with claim of Art 25," AG Navadgi said.
