The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday resumed hearing pleas into the hijab row, ending the session by adjourning the hearing to Wednesday, news agency ANI reported. The three-judge bench, headed by chief justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, will take up the matter at 2:30pm on February 16.
During today's hearing, senior advocate Dev Datt Kamat while appearing for the petitioners referred to a judgement of a South African court on the issue whether a Hindu girl with roots in South India could wear nose ring in the school, news agency ANI reported.
“This case is not about uniforms,but exemptions to existing uniforms,” the lawyer argued.
Kamat further argued,"Our Constitution follows positive secularism, not like Turkish secularism, that is negative secularism. Our secularism ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved."
{{/usCountry}}Kamat further argued,"Our Constitution follows positive secularism, not like Turkish secularism, that is negative secularism. Our secularism ensures that everyone's religious rights are preserved."
{{/usCountry}}The high court bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit and Justice JM Khazi had on Thursday in an interim order restrained the students from wearing hijab or any religious attire till pending matters.
The Karnataka high court hearing comes amid reopening of pre-university and degree colleges across the state despite tensions around the hijab controversy.
The controversy first broke out in Udupi, about 400 kms from Bengaluru, when at least eight girls from the Government Girls Pre-University college in the district were not allowed to attend classes wearing Hijab. They sat outside the classes (within the college premises) as their statements and videos of this alleged discrimination went global through relentless media coverage and social media.