NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday gave a split verdict on validity of hijab ban imposed by the Karnataka government in Pre University Colleges.
The judgement would mean the restrictions on headscarf in classrooms as per the state government's February 5 order would continue for now.
A bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia said the matter would be referred to the Chief Justice of India for setting up a larger bench, as there is divergent views.
In his judgement, Justice Gupta dismissed the batch of appeals filed against March 15 judgement of the High Court, which upheld the ban.
Justice Dhulia, however, disagreed by allowing the appeals and quashing the notification issued by the state government.
He said the main thrust of his judgment is that the entire concept of essential religious practice was not important to address the issues and the High Court took a wrong path.
"It (wearing of hijab) is a matter of choice, nothing more and nothing less, Justice Dhulia said.
"What weighed on my mind the most was whether we are making a girl student's life better by putting such restrictions," he added.
The top court had on September 22 reserved the judgement after 10 days of marathon hearing.
Senior advocates Rajeev Dhavan, Kapil Sibal, Colin Gonsalves, Huzefa Ahmadi, Dushyant Dave, Devadatt Kamat, Sanjay Hegde among others argued for the petitioners.
The Karnataka government was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj and Advocate General Prabhuling K Navadgi. Present Attorney General R Venkataramani also defended the High Court's judgement as a counsel for a party.
The state government had claimed no student was wearing hijab prior to 2021 but a movement was launched by the PFI on social media with a design to create social unrest. This had forced the State to intervene into the matter.
