‘Refer hijab matter to a larger bench’

Women wearing Hijab walk past the Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru. File pic/AFP

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave on Thursday told a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court that it should not have heard the batch of petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court on hijab, instead the case should have been referred to a larger bench. Dave, representing some of the petitioners', appeared annoyed with the limited time allocated to him to argue the case. He said, "Please don't restrain us in time for arguing..."

He added that the matter affects millions of people and he wants to show the Constituent Assembly debates and the warning of Sardar Patel. Dave said he would not be able to finish his arguments today and this case is a serious matter. Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia agreed with Dave.

Also read: Poorly maintained Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway is a deadly nightmare for motorists; lacks enough road signage at crucial spots

Advocate Shoeb Alam, representing some other petitioners, submitted before the bench that the impact of the Karnataka government order is - "I will give you education, you give me your right to privacy". He added that the state cannot ask the person to surrender the right to privacy.

The SC will continue to hear arguments in the afternoon session on the petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court's judgement of March 15 upholding ban on hijab in the pre-university colleges.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever