Bengaluru: The three-judge bench of the High Court will pronounce the judgment on the Hijab controversy tomorrow morning. The bunch of petitions challenging the state government's order on banning the wearing of hijabs in schools and colleges. 

Three judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi will pronounce the much-awaited verdict in Court hall 1 tomorrow morning at 10.30 AM. High Court will arrange the live telecast of the hearing on its youtube channel and zoom. 

The bench reserved the verdict after a marathon hearing of 11 days of all the parties. Ten main petitions and 25 interim petitions were heard over the issue.

The Bench has passed an interim order on February 11  restraining all the students regardless of their religion or faith from wearing scarfs, hijab, saffron shawls, or religious flags within the classrooms.

The three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi has further observed that the interim order is confined to the institutions where the college development committees have prescribed the student dress code or uniform.
The bench has requested the state government and all stakeholders to reopen the educational institutions and allow the students to return to the classes at the earliest. The state government has ordered to close the high schools and colleges for three days after hijab row gets widespread protest in colleges across the state.

The bench further observed that “Ours being a civilized society, no person in the name of religion, culture or the like can be permitted to do any act that disturbs public peace and tranquility”.

“Endless agitations and closure of educational institutions indefinitely are not happy things to happen. The hearing of these matters on an urgency basis is continuing. Elongation of academic terms would be detrimental to the educational career of students especially when the timelines for admission to higher studies/courses are mandatory”, the three-judge bench observed.

“The interest of students would be better served by their returning to the classes than by the continuation of agitations and consequent closure of institutions. The academic year is coming to an end shortly. We hope and trust that all stakeholders and the public at large shall maintain peace and tranquility”, the court said in the interim order.
“We are pained by the ongoing agitations and closure of educational institutions since the past few days, especially when this Court is seized off this matter and important issues of constitutional significance and personal law are being seriously debated”, stated in the order.

Read: https://24x7liveindia.com/karnataka-hc-restrains-students-to-wear-hijab-in-classrooms

The Hijab row: The hijab row came to the fore on January 1 at Government PU College in Udupi, where six female students claimed that they were not allowed to enter classrooms wearing hijab. The students held a press conference, where they said that permission was sought but college authorities refused to let them enter the classroom with their faces covered.

Several petitions were filed in the Karnataka High Court on January 31 in which Muslim students sought the right to wear Hijabs in classrooms under Articles 14, 19, and 25 of the Constitution of India. The court heard it for the first time on February 8. justice Dixit referred the matter to the larger bench of the High Court