Indian court rejects Muslim student’s plea to wear hijab at school
Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court in India’s BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh state has dismissed a Muslim student’s petition seeking permission to wear a hijab along with her school uniform.
According to Kashmir Media Service, a bench comprising Justices J.J. Munir and Indrajeet Shukla said the student had failed to provide sufficient legal and religious material to establish that wearing a headscarf constituted an essential religious practice in Islam, the denial of which would affect her faith.
The petitioner, a minor Muslim student named Sakina Rizvi, is enrolled at Tagore Public School in Allahabad. She approached the court after completing Class 10 to seek admission to Class 11 at the same school.
She argued that she had worn the hijab at the school from Class 6 through Class 10, but the school had now objected to her wearing it with the prescribed uniform.
The school maintained that, as a private institution, it had a uniform dress code applicable to all students. It argued that allowing an individual student to add an extra garment to the uniform would undermine discipline and uniformity.
The court observed that where a school’s dress code is uniform, non-discriminatory and intended to maintain discipline and institutional identity, a student cannot insist on modifying it according to personal preference.
The court further held that the school’s previous acceptance of the student wearing the hijab did not creast a permanent legal right for her to continue wearing it.
The ruling has drawn attention to concerns over the growing restrictions on Islamic religious practices in educational institutions in India, with critics arguing that denying a Muslim student the right to wear hijab undermines her freedom of religious expression and disregards the importance of Islamic dress practices. KMS-24S
