Hijab ban: India's Supreme Court rejects intervention plea and urges calm

Despite refusing to hear the case, the chief justice promises that constitutional rights will be upheld in dispute over barring female students from wearing headscarves

India’s Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear an urgent plea against a temporary ban on female students wearing the hijab in the southern state of Karnataka but the chief justice of India promised that student's rights would be upheld under the secular constitution.

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday barred students in the state from wearing any religious clothing to class until it ruled on petitions challenging the decision by several institutions to deny entry to female students wearing the traditional Muslim headscarf.

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Friday called for calm while promising to ensure students’ rights under the country’s secular constitution.

“Don't take it on a larger level. We also know what's happening in the state and in the hearing,” he said.

“Definitely we'll have to protect constitutional rights. Let us see – at an appropriate time, we'll hear [the petitions].”

The Karnataka High Court is scheduled to resume hearings on the matter on Monday.

Education institutions started enforcing dress codes against headscarves in December, sparking student protests in Karnataka that spread to other states and even neighbouring Pakistan.

On Thursday, students and minority organisations held a protest in Vizag in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, while thousands of people gathered in Malegaon in Maharashtra to show solidarity with Muslim students. In Pakistan, scores of women protested in the southern port city of Karachi while in Lahore others torched an effigy of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The state government in Karnataka, run by Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has supported the right of institutions to enforce dress codes and shut schools and colleges in the state for three days as protests escalated.

The state high court on Thursday ordered the government to reopen education institutions and maintain “peace and tranquility”.

Mohammad Tahir, a lawyer representing one of the petitioners in the high court, said he was hopeful that its decision would be favourable.

“We have a limited argument related to the law related to uniforms. The state took it as a challenge and made a big issue, but I am hopeful that the court will pass an order in our favour,” he told The National.