On August 9, the Supreme Court issued a stay on the instruction imposed by NG Acharya & DK Marathe College in Mumbai, which prohibited students from wearing hijabs, caps, and badges on campus. This decision came during the Court\u2019s hearing of a petition filed by Muslim women students challenging the Bombay High Court\u2019s earlier judgment that upheld the college\u2019s dress code policy.<\/p>\n
The petitioners argued that the college\u2019s ban infringes upon their fundamental rights, including freedom of religion and personal expression. During the hearing, the bench, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar, expressed surprise and concern over the college\u2019s decision. Justice Khanna questioned the rationale behind the ban, asking, \u201cWhat is this? Don\u2019t impose such a rule\u2026 what is this? Don\u2019t reveal religion?\u201d He emphasized that the rule seemed to disregard the importance of allowing students to express their religious identity.<\/p>\n
Justice Kumar added to the critique by highlighting the arbitrariness of the policy. He queried, \u201cWill their names not reveal religion? Will you ask them to be identified by numbers?\u201d He further challenged the logic of the rule by asking if it would also apply to other religious symbols, like a tilak, suggesting that such instructions could be perceived as discriminatory.<\/p>\n
Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan, representing the college, argued that the dress code was implemented to maintain uniformity and avoid religious identification. However, Justice Kumar noted that the college had operated without such restrictions since its establishment in 2008, questioning the sudden imposition of the dress code. He remarked, \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that you come up with such instructions after so many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Court also agreed that face-covering veils like nakabs and burkhas could be restricted in classrooms for practical reasons but maintained that the broader ban on hijabs and other attire was problematic. The Supreme Court\u2019s interim order allows the college to continue operations but with the instruction that the hijab ban should not be enforced until the ITAT appeal is resolved.<\/p>\n
The Bombay High Court had previously dismissed the students\u2019 petitions, arguing that the dress code aimed to ensure academic focus and discipline by preventing the display of religious symbols.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court has directed the college to allow students to wear hijabs while ensuring that the stay order is not misused. The case has been scheduled for further review, with a notice issued for November 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Supreme Court has stayed the Mumbai college\u2019s ban on hijabs, caps, and badges, questioning the fairness of the dress code imposed by NG Acharya & DK Marathe College. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":29943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14423,17087,17088,17083,17084,17085,17086,3339],"class_list":["post-29939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlight","tag-bombay-high-court","tag-dress-code","tag-fundamental-rights","tag-hijab-ban","tag-mumbai-college","tag-ng-acharya-dk-marathe-college","tag-religious-rights","tag-supreme-court"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/409"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}