Karnataka hijab row petitioner questions govt over 'denying education for piece of cloth'

After Karnataka Education Minister BC Nagpal announced that students wearing hijab will not be allowed to write the crucial annual II PUC examination in the state, he met with backlash on social media on Tuesday. Taking to Twitter, one of the petitioners, who sought permission to attend classes wearing a Hijab, which was later denied by the Karnataka High Court, asked Nagapal if it was just for him to 'deny education for a piece of cloth?' 

"I had been preparing for my exams for long, all that would go in vain. Don't do this injustice to us, sir. Allow us!" she wrote on Twitter, sharing an article from a leading daily that elaborately covered the Education Minister's statement on holding II PUC examinations from April 22 to May 18 in the state. As many as 6,84,255 students have enrolled for the examinations, but the Education Minister has made clear that anyone with Hijab on will not be allowed in the examination centre, saying that Éducation should be the priority.'

Karnataka HC's verdict on Hijab row

On March 15, the Karnataka HC bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justices Krishna Dixit and JM Khazi ruled that Hijab is not an essential religious practice. It was hearing the plea of students of Government P.U. College for Girls, Udupi, who sought permission to attend classes wearing a Hijab and a direction to the effect that it is an "essential practice" of Islam.

In its judgment panning 129 pages, the court has eloquently answered key questions pertaining to the Hijab row and said that the prescription of the school uniform is only a reasonable restriction that students cannot object to. The judgment observed, "There is absolutely no material placed on record to prima facie show that wearing of hijab is a part of essential religious practice in Islam and that the petitioners have been wearing hijab from the beginning. This apart, it can hardly be argued that the hijab being a matter of attire, can be justifiably treated as fundamental to the Islamic faith. It is not that if the alleged practice of wearing hijab is not adhered to, those not wearing hijab become the sinners, Islam loses its glory and it ceases to be a religion." 

The hijab controversy started in December 2021, when Udupi's Kundapur PU college's principal Rudra Gowda issued a circular, banning students from wearing hijabs in classrooms, claiming it was to ensure uniformity. This led to an uproar in the college, then the district and soon spread to different corners of the state.