‘Hijab Not an Essential Part of Islam,’ Indian Court Rules
India’s Allahabad High Court has dismissed a student’s plea seeking permission to wear a hijab with her school uniform, ruling that wearing a hijab is not an essential religious practice of Islam whose absence would undermine religious faith. The court also held that students do not have an individual right to alter an institution’s prescribed dress code according to personal preference.
According to a report by NDTV, the student, who had recently passed her secondary examination from a private school, approached the court through her mother seeking admission to Class XI at the same institution. She requested an order directing the school authorities to allow her to wear a hijab with the prescribed uniform. The petition argued that wearing the hijab was an essential Islamic practice and that the student had been wearing it to school since Class VI.
A two-judge bench comprising Justice J.J. Munir and Justice Indrajit Shukla dismissed the petition. The court noted that it had examined photographs of the student taken in different classes and found that no other female student was wearing a hijab. It also observed that other students from the same religious community were not wearing one. The bench further said the petition did not provide specific grounds to establish that wearing a hijab constitutes an essential religious practice in Islam. It also referred to judgments delivered by various high courts on similar issues.
On the school’s dress code, the court held that an educational institution has the authority to enforce its prescribed uniform when it is reasonable, non-discriminatory and applied equally to all students to maintain discipline and equality. The bench clarified that when wearing the prescribed uniform is mandatory, a student has no separate legal right to add a hijab to it based solely on personal preference. The court observed that if students were allowed to modify or omit parts of a common uniform according to individual preferences, the purpose of having a uniform would be undermined. It could also shift control over discipline and dress regulations from the institution to individual students.
The school authorities told the court that the institution is a privately run, self-financed school attended by students from different communities, with the same dress code applicable to everyone. Granting an individual student an exemption, they argued, could undermine discipline and the uniformity of the school’s dress code. The Uttar Pradesh government and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) also opposed the student’s plea.
In its judgment delivered on August 21, the Allahabad High Court ultimately dismissed the petition.
