Over 700 lawyers, legal academics criticise Karnataka HC’s interim order disallowing hijab in schools

Bengaluru, 17 Feb 2022 [Fik/News Sources]: A total of 765 law students, legal academics and lawyers have written an open letter raising strong concern over the violation of constitutional rights of young Muslim women who have been denied entry into educational spaces due to their wearing a hijab.

They denounced Karnataka High Court’s interim order disallowing religious dresses including hijab and saffron shawls in classrooms.

“Post the interim order, we are witness to the public humiliation of Muslim students and staff, who are being forced to remove their hijab before entering schools and colleges, purportedly on instructions of the district administrations,” the letter said.

The letter further regarded the ban on hijab as “furtherance of Islamophobic violence”. “It must be remembered that the background within which these educational institutions have denied entry to girls wearing hijabs is one of increasing Islamophobia and violence against Muslims, including open calls for genocide, social and economic boycotts, and attacks against inter-faith couples. In this context, the denial of entry to Muslim girls is in furtherance of Islamophobic violence, and must be critiqued in this context,” it added.

Some of the individuals who have signed the letter include Anjana Prakash (Ex High Court judge), Amar Saran (Ex High Court judge), C.S. Dwarakanath (Ex-Chairperson, Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission), Sanjay Parikh (Senior Advocate), Mihir Desai (Senior Advocate), Ashok Agarwal (Senior Advocate), Gayatri Singh (Senior Advocate), Pratiksha Baxi (Professor and Author), Vrinda Grover (Supreme Court Lawyer), Saumya Uma (Professor at Jindal Global Law School), Meera Sanghamitra (Activist and law graduate), Poornima Hatti (Partner, Samvad Partners ), Shahrukh Alam (Supreme Court Lawyer), Arundhati Katju (Supreme Court Advocate) D Geetha (Labour Lawyer, Chennai) Muralidhara (Senior labour Lawyer), Arvind Narrain (Lawyer – Author) Jhuma Sen (Professor and Legal Academic), and Clifton D’Rozario (National Convener, AILAJ).