Hijab Case: Karnataka High Court to deliver judgment shortly; asks counsels to close arguments today

NEW DELHI: The Karnataka High Court is likely to deliver judgment in the hijab ban case shortly. The HC asked the counsels in the case to close their arguments by today, February 25. The Chief Justice of the High Court Ritu Raj Awasthi, who is part of the three-judge bench, told the counsels that the arguments should be finished by Friday. He also asked the parties to give their written submissions within two to three days.

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The full bench of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice J M Khazi and Justice Krishna M Dixit is hearing a batch of petitions by the girls seeking permission to wear Hijab inside the classroom. The Chief Justice said on February 22, "We want to finish this case this week itself. Make all endeavours to finish this case by the end of this week."

The Karnataka government on Tuesday told the High Court that there is no restriction on wearing Hijab in India with reasonable restrictions subject to institutional discipline. Countering the petitioner Muslim girls from Udupi district, who challenged the restriction on Hijab inside the educational institutions, Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi said the right to wear the headscarf falls under the category of 19(1)(A) and not Article 25 as has been argued by the petitioners.

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On January one, six girl students of a college in Udupi attended a press conference held by the Campus Front of India (CFI) in the coastal town protesting against the college authorities denying them entry into classrooms wearing hijab. This was four days after they requested the principal permission to wear hijab in classes which was not allowed.

(With inputs from PTI)