SC AGREES TO CONSIDER LISTING PLEAS AGAINST K’TAKA HC’S HIJAB VERDICT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it will consider listing for hearing a bunch of petitions against the Karnataka high court’s verdict that held the wearing of hijab by Muslim women was not an essential religious practice.

“I will list. Wait for two days,” Chief Justice of India NV Ramana told senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, who represents one of the petitioners in the appeals filed last month.

In March, the Chief Justice declined to put a date to hearing these cases on two separate occasions when lawyers for the petitioners urged for an urgent hearing of their appeals challenging the high court’s March 15 verdict.

On March 16, he refrained from indicating any date of hearing after senior counsels Sanjay Hegde and Devadatt Kamat implored the court to urgently list the matter. Hegde appeared for girl student Niba Naaz, while Kamat represented another student, Aishat Shifa.

On March 24, justice Ramana declined to assign a date of hearing, observing that cases pertaining to the ban on hijab have nothing to do with school examinations and the matter should not be sensationalised.

On that day, solicitor general Tushar Mehta intervened on behalf of the Karnataka government and opposed urgent listing of the petitions.

On March 15, a full bench of the Karnataka high court, headed by chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, declared that wearing the headscarves was not mandatory in Islam. It upheld the ban on hijab by the state government in schools and colleges through a February 5 executive order, which led to widespread protests.

ON MARCH 15, FULL BENCH OF KARNATAKA HC, DECLARED THAT WEARING HIJAB WAS NOT MUST IN ISLAM