On Friday, two pre-university college students namely Alia and Resham, returned back home from the exam center, as they were not allowed to write the exam wearing hijab.
These two girls had arrived in an auto rickshaw at the exam centre wearing hijab. Visuals of the incident depicted that they insisted that they should be allowed to write the exam wearing hijab but the college authorities citing the High Court order denied them entry. The exam which began on Friday will go on till May 18.
These two students had approached the Karnataka High Court challenging the ban on hijab.
Notably, this news comes in the backdrop of the hijab protests in Karnataka that took place in January-February this year when some students of Government Girls PU college in the Udupi district of the state alleged that they had been barred from attending classes. During the protests, some students claimed they were denied entry into the college for wearing hijab.
On March 16, a full bench of the Karnataka High Court had stated that wearing the hijab is not an essential religious practice in Islam and freedom of religion under Article 25 of the Constitution is subject to reasonable restrictions and dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Muslim girls studying in pre-university colleges in Udupi seeking the right to wear hijabs in classrooms.
The Court also upheld an order issued on February 5 by the state, which suggested that wearing hijabs can be restricted in government colleges where uniforms are prescribed -- and ruled that "prescription of a school uniform" is a "reasonable restriction" that is "Constitutionally permissible".
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