Nine students have moved the Bombay High Court challenging a directive issued by their college imposing a ban on hijab, burka and naqab in the classroom.
In their petition, the girls said the ban imposed by the Chembur Trombay Education Society’s NG Acharya and DK Marathe College was “arbitrary, unreasonable, bad-in-law and perverse.”
A bench headed by Justice AS Chandurkar will hear the petition next week.
As per the plea, on May 1, a notice along with a message was circulated on the college’s WhatsApp group, which includes faculty members and students, imposing a dress code restriction on the burka, naqab, hijab, badges, cap and stole.
The petitioners, who are second and third-year degree students, said such a directive was “nothing but colourable exercise of power”.
The naqab, burka and hijab are an integral part of the petitioners’ religious belief and imposing a ban on it was violative of their fundamental rights, the plea contended.
The petitioners initially requested the college management and principal to withdraw the restriction on naqab, burka and hijab and allow it “as a matter of right of choice, dignity and privacy in the classroom”.
They also raised their grievance against the notice with the chancellor and vice-chancellor of the University as well as the University Grants Commission requesting their intervention “to upkeep the spirit of imparting education to all citizens without discrimination”.
However, when they did not get any response, the students filed a petition in HC, the plea said, adding the notice was issued without any authority of law and was hence bad-in-law, null and void.
The plea sought the High Court to quash the notice.
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