Allahabad High Court Rejects Student's Plea to Wear Headscarf with School Uniform

Allahabad High Court dismissed a student's plea for wearing a headscarf with her uniform. (File photo) PRAYAGRAJ: Allahabad HC dismissed a petition seeking permission for a student to wear a headscarf along with her school uniform, observing that no factual or legal material was placed before it to establish that wearing a headscarf was an essential religious practice in Islam. It noted that no other girl in the school, including those from the same community, wore a headscarf. The plea was filed by a minor student of Tagore Public School, Prayagraj, through her mother. Having passed high school, she sought admission to Class XI in the same institution and approached HC for permission to wear a headscarf. A division bench comprising Justices J J Munir and Indrajeet Shukla said it had perused the photographs from various classes and found that no other student, not even those from the petitioner's community, donned a headscarf. "Here, no such factual foundation has been laid or material placed on record to establish a case that the donning of a headscarf is an essential part of religion for a Muslim female, forsaking which would oust the girl or woman concerned from the faith that she professes and practices," the court observed. The bench added that HCs have been unanimous in their opinion that wearing a headscarf is not integral to Islam, in the absence of which a woman's faith would be jeopardised. End of Article