Hijab Row: 3-Judge Bench Headed By Karnataka Chief Justice To Hear Case Tomorrow

A three-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court, headed by the Chief Justice of the state, will hear a case to decide if schools and colleges can order students to not wear the hijab in classrooms. The High Court had earlier in the day referred the case to a larger bench in view of "the enormity of questions of importance which were debated".

"These matters give rise to certain constitutional questions of seminal importance in view of certain aspects of personal law," the judge hearing the case had said while referring it to a panel of judges to be led by the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court Ritu Raj Awasthi.

"The bench was also of the view that the interim prayers should also be placed before a larger bench that may be constituted by Chief Justice Awasthi exercising his discretion," Justice Krishna S Dixit had said.

The case had been filed by a group of Muslim girls studying in government colleges in the Udupi district against a ban on wearing hijabs in classrooms.

Muslim girls at a government school in the state were recently denied entry into the classroom for wearing headscarves, which authorities claim is not allowed. These women have been protesting against the move, saying they should not be denied an education for their choice of clothes. 

As their protest escalated and grabbed headlines across the country, several other educational institutes in the state denied entry to women wearing headscarves. Groups of Hindu students of those colleges then started counter-protests by donning saffron scarves. They were seen raising slogans of "Jai Shree Ram" and in one case, also heckling a Muslim student who entered college wearing a hijab. A group of students even hoisted a saffron flag on the flagpole in their campus where the national flag is usually hoisted. 

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai appealed for calm after announcing all high schools in the state would be closed for three days.