New Delhi, 22 September: The Supreme Court has reserved the verdict on Thursday after completing the hearing on the Karnataka hijab case. A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia heard the arguments of the Karnataka government and college teachers apart from the pro-hijab petitioners in the last ten days.
During the hearing on September 21, besides the Karnataka government, the college teachers were cross-examined who had asked not to wear the hijab in the colleges. The court sought a copy of the charge sheet filed in the case of conspiracy behind the hijab and translation of the Kannada words in the circular from the Karnataka government.
During the hearing, Karnataka Government Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi said that Hijab is not a compulsory religious practice, just the mention of it in the Quran does not make it an essential part of religion, not every word written in the Quran can be called an obligatory tradition.
Justice Gupta said that the pro-hijab side believes that whatever is written in the Quran is the order of Allah and as such imperative to believe it. Navadgi said that “we are not experts in the Quran”, but the Supreme Court itself has an old judgment that says every word in the Quran can be religious, but it is not necessarily a mandatory tradition.
Justice Gupta said that he knows a judge of Lahore High Court, who used to come to India also. Gupta said he has never seen that judge’s girls wearing hijabs and Gupta goes to Uttar Pradesh and Patna, and has never seen women wearing hijab.
During the hearing on September 20, advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for the petitioners, said that hijab enhances the dignity of Muslim women, it is a protected right under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution. Dave said that the decision of the Karnataka High Court is completely untenable and illegal. He said the High Court’s decision is in violation of Sections 14, 19, 21 and 25. He said the High Court erred in examining the legality of wearing the hijab in public places on the basis of a mandatory religious practice.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on behalf of the Karnataka government, said that no Muslim girl was wearing a hijab before 2021, and no such question arose. He said it would be wrong to say that the government has only banned the hijab, people from other communities have also been prevented from wearing saffron gamchas.
Mehta said that in 2022. the Popular Front of India started a campaign to wear the hijab on social media. He said it was not the children’s decision to wear the hijab, the children were working according to what was explained to them.
Responding to the reference of Sikh turbans in support of pro-hijab lawyers, Mehta had said that turban and kada are their mandatory religious tradition in the case of Sikhs. He said one cannot imagine a Sikh in any corner of the world without them.
Mehta tried to prove through his arguments that hijab is not a mandatory religious tradition of Islam. He had said that the petitioners could not make any such argument to prove that the hijab has been a part of the religion of Islam since the beginning.
Mehta also referred to the women’s fight against the hijab in Iran. He said women are fighting against the hijab in many Islamic countries, such as in Iran. That’s why he argues that the hijab is not a mandatory religious tradition of Islam.
