The Supreme Court on Thursday said it will hear an appeal on August 9 against the Bombay High Court order upholding the ban by a Chembur college on students wearing burqa, hijab, niqab, stole or cap on the campus.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the hearing will be conducted on Friday after the matter was mentioned by the petitioner’s lawyer for early hearing.
Challenging the High Court order, the advocate of the petitioner urged the apex court to hear the case today itself as exams start today.
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“Are you being stopped from appearing in the exam?” asked the bench. To this, the counsel said, “If students do not adhere to the uniform… please hear it today.” “It is coming up tomorrow,” said the bench.
In June, the Bombay High Court dismissed the plea filed by a group of female students challenging the ban imposed by a college in Mumbai on wearing hijab, niqab, burkha, stole, caps or any kind of badge in the classroom. It had said that it was not inclined to interfere in the decision of the college administration.
The students were from Chembur Trombay Education Society’s NG Acharya and DK Marathe College. The second and third years of B.Sc and B.Sc (Computer Science) programmes claimed that the new dress code violates their fundamental rights to privacy, dignity, and religious freedom. The college had told the High Court that the ban applies to all religious symbols and is not targeted at Muslims.
The High Court in its order had stated, “We are satisfied that the instructions issued by the College under which a dress code has been prescribed for its students do not suffer from any infirmity to violate provisions of Article 19(1)(a) and Article 25 of the Constitution of India.
The objective behind issuing the same is that the dress of a student should not reveal his/her religion which is a step towards ensuring that the students focus on gaining knowledge and education which is in their larger interest.
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