Karnataka hijab row Split verdict by Top Court; Justice Gupta upholds ban, Justice Dhulia says' matter of choice'

The Supreme Court on Tuesday passed a split judgment on a bunch of prayers challenging restriction on Muslim girl scholars wearing hijab in educational institutes in Karnataka. 

Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the Karnataka government indirect administering livery and banning all religious dresses, including hijab. He dismissed the 26 prayers filed against the judgment of the Karnataka high court which held that hijab wasn't an essential practice in Islam. 

In a diverging opinion, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the prayers and said that it was a matter of choice of Muslim women," nothing lower than nothing further". 

" The main thrust of my judgment is that this entire conception of essential religious practices, in my opinion, wasn't essential for disposal of the disagreement," he said. 

Stressing that his focus was on education of the girl child, especially in pastoral areas, Justice Dhulia observed," Are we making her life any more." 

While allowing the prayers against the high court verdict, Justice Dhulia said he has quashed the state government's February 5, 2022 order banning clothes that disturb equivalency, integrity, and public order in seminaries and sodalities. 

The bench ordered that the matter be placed before the CJI for assigning the contestation, arising from the Karnataka government's February 5 indirect, to a three- judge bench.