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Asking girls to take off hijab invasion of privacy, attack on dignity: Justice Dhulia

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Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, in the split verdict on Karnataka hijab ban, on Thursday said by asking girls to take off their hijab before they enter school gates is an invasion of privacy, attack on dignity, and denial of secular education.

He said this is the time when children should learn not to be alarmed by our diversity but to rejoice and celebrate this, and also this is the time when they must realise that diversity is our strength.

Justice Dhulia said: “By asking the girls to take off their hijab before they enter the school gates, is first an invasion of their privacy, then it is an attack on their dignity, and then ultimately it is a denial to them of secular education. These are clearly violative of Article 19(1)(a), Article 21 and Article 25(1) of the Constitution”.

The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising Justices Hemant Gupta and Dhulia. While Justice Gupta dismissed the appeals challenging the Karnataka High Court judgment, Justice Dhulia set aside the high court judgment and quashed the Karnataka government order dated February 5.

The petitioners had moved the apex court, challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict refusing to lift the ban on hijab in educational institutions of the state.

Justice Dhulia said there shall be no restriction on the wearing of hijab anywhere in schools and colleges in Karnataka. He added that the unfortunate fallout of the hijab restriction would be that they would have denied education to a girl child.

“A girl child for whom it is still not easy to reach her school gate. This case here, therefore, has also to be seen in the perspective of the challenges already faced by a girl child in reaching her school. The question this court would put before itself is also whether we are making the life of a girl child any better by denying her education merely because she wears a hijab!” he said.

He added that the constitutional scheme, wearing a hijab should be simply a matter of choice and it may or may not be a matter of essential religious practice, but it still is, a matter of conscience, belief, and expression.

Justice Dhulia said if a girl wants to wear hijab, even inside her class room, she cannot be stopped, if it is worn as a matter of her choice, as it may be the only way her conservative family will permit her to go to school, and in those cases, her hijab is her ticket to education.

In a 73-page judgment, he said, “fraternity, which is our constitutional value, would therefore require us to be tolerant, and as some of the counsel would argue to be, reasonably accommodating, towards the belief and religious practices of others. We should remember the appeal made by Justice O. Chinnappa Reddy in Bijoe Emmanuel — our tradition teaches tolerance; our philosophy preaches tolerance; our Constitution practices tolerance; let us not dilute it.”

He emphasised that the Government Order dated 5 February, 2022, and the restrictions on the wearing of hijab, also goes against constitutional values of fraternity and human dignity.

Justice Dhulia said: “Liberty, equality, fraternity, the triptych of the French Revolution is also a part of our Preamble. It is true that whereas liberty and equality are well established, properly understood, and recognised concepts in politics and law, fraternity for some reasons has largely remained incognito. The framers of our Constitution though had a different vision. Fraternity had a different, and in many ways a much larger meaning with the main architect of our Constitution, Dr Ambedkar”.

He added that schools, in particular our pre-university colleges are the perfect institutions where children, who are now at an impressionable age, and are just waking up to the rich diversity of this nation, need to be counselled and guided, so that they imbibe our constitutional values of tolerance and accommodation, towards those who may speak a different language, eat different food, or even wear different clothes or apparel!

“This is the time to foster in them sensitivity, empathy and understanding towards different religions, languages and cultures. This is the time when they should learn not to be alarmed by our diversity but to rejoice and celebrate this diversity. This is the time when they must realise that in diversity is our strength,” he said.

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Shinde takes a dig at Uddhav Thackeray over his meeting with CM Fadnavis

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Nagpur, Dec 18: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday took a dig at Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray over his meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, saying it was like “meet this one, meet that one and go home next day.”

He thereby downplayed the meeting between Thackeray and Fadnavis.

“Anyone can meet the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister is the head of the state. The opposition party also meets him. The leaders of other parties of the opposition party also meet him. I see a radical change in those who criticised him severely, talked about ending him, and talked about putting him in jail. It is not wrong to meet Devendra Fadnavis,” said Shinde.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena legislator and former minister Deepak Kesarkar said “If Uddhav Thackeray had held such a meeting earlier (with Devendra Fadnavis), Shiv Sena would not have been divided into two.”

“Earlier, Uddhav Thackeray had not even responded to Devendra Fadnavis’ telephonic calls. Uddhav Thackeray abandoned Balasaheb Thackeray’s idea of Hindutva for the post of Chief Minister. Eknath Shinde had no other demand. Eknath Shinde’s only demand was that we should go with the idea of Hindutva. We should not go with the Congress. But if Uddhav Thackeray had met Devendra Fadnavis then, all this would not have happened. Devendra Fadnavis called Uddhav Thackeray many times in 2019. But now it is too late. Now the MahaYuti government has come back to power again,” said Kesarkar.

Meanwhile, Shinde slammed the opposition for their campaign against EVMs, saying that “When the poll results go against them, allegations are made against EVMs.”

“When the results are in favour of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, then EVMs are good. For them, the Election Commission is good. The Supreme Court and the High Court are also good. When the results are against them, then they start blaming EVMs. The opposition has been doing this for the last few days. In 2004 and 2009, voting was done on EVMs and the Congress won. When you win, you praise that system,” he added.

“Even the Supreme Court said that when you win, you don’t come to us and when you lose, you come to us. This is a double standard. After winning the Lok Sabha elections, you (the opposition) didn’t talk about EVMs. Omar Abdullah has also slammed the Congress,” said Eknath Shinde.

He said that Congress should not insult the mandate otherwise the people will make them sit at home. Shinde also ridiculed Uddhav Thackeray for his demand that the appointment of Election Commissioner be made through election.

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Commuters inconvenienced with ‘rail roko’ protest by farmers in Punjab

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Chandigarh, Dec 18: Railway commuters faced inconvenience in Punjab on Wednesday after farmers squatted on rail tracks in support of their long-pending demands, including the legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

However, no untoward incident was reported in the state. The protest, at the call of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, was carried out at over 100 locations in the state, badly impacting the railway services.

Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarwan Singh Pandher claimed that the three-hour “rail roko” call got a good response in the state.

The impact of the protest was more viable in Moga, Faridkot, Ferozepur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Batala, Qadian, Phillaur, Tanda, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Sunam towns.

Farmers of both outfits have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.

While hearing a petition, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the court’s doors were “always open” to the demands and suggestions of protesting farmers, after they refused to engage with the Punjab government-formed committee.

The Punjab government told the apex court that despite several meetings with fasting farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal, the farmers had rejected interactions with the state’s high-powered committee.

Protesting farmers, whose bid to enter Haryana in support of their long-pending demands was foiled thrice, halted the trains to lodge their protest and press their demands.

The 70-year-old cancer patient Dallewal has been fasting at Khanauri, the border point between Punjab and Haryana, since November 26 in support of their demands that included loan waiver and reforms to improve conditions in the agricultural sector.

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Thackeray to PM Modi: Apologise for Amit Shah’s comments on Ambedkar

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Nagpur, Dec 18: Taking strong umbrage over Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s comments on Dr B. R. Ambedkar, Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise for the utterances or quit, here on Wednesday.

Thackeray, a former Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Chief Minister, played the tapes of Shah’s comments that have sparked a massive political row in Maharashtra and other parts of the country, especially among the Dalit communities.

Shah said that rather than chanting ‘Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, if you invoke the name of God, you will get heaven in seven births’ – that has kicked up a storm among Dalits and Ambedkar followers.

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray said that Shah would “not dare to say such a thing unless prodded by the BJP-RSS”, and demanded to know whether Prime Minister Modi and Maharashtra Ministers in the Union Cabinet were in concurrence with it.

“Maharashtra has given two great sons to the world, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Dr Ambedkar who gave us the Constitution. After ranting ‘Nehru, Nehru’ for years, they are attacking Dr Ambedkar. We will not tolerate any kind of insults to them,” fumed Thackeray.

He said that Modi-Shah must apologise to the nation or quit for the slight to Ambedkar that has shaken the poor and downtrodden masses, warning that they will not forgive the BJP.

Countering Shah, SS (UBT) Deputy Leader Sushma Andhare declared that Ambedkar is indeed a divine personality for millions who worship him daily for his services to the downtrodden, the deprived and the poorest sections of society.

Other MVA leaders like Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) General Secretary Dr Jitendra Awhad, Congress’ state President Nana F. Patole and Dr. Nitin Raut, SS (UBT)’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and Sanjay Raut, and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar, also attacked the BJP and Shah for displaying their “utter contempt for Dr. Ambedkar and the Constitution”.

Thackeray contended that the BJP — which secured a brute majority in the November 2024 Maharashtra Assembly polls — has continued to denigrate the icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr B.R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Savitribai Phule.

“A former governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari had made objectionable remarks against the legendary Phule couple… The statue of the Chhatrapati (in Sindhudurg) crashed just eight months after it was inaugurated by the PM… And now Shah’s statement in the Parliament,” said Thackeray.

Lashing out at Shah, Thackeray pointedly asked Shah, “whether you will get Heaven by chanting ‘Modi, Modi’ daily”, adding that now the BJP’s attitude against the respected and venerated personalities ‘has crossed all tolerable limits’ in the past few years.

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