"Will take a call": Supreme Court on listing of Karnataka Hijab case

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it would take a call on listing the Hijab case which deals with the Karnataka's ban on Muslim girl students wearing the hijab (headscarf) in college campuses. .The case was mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud by advocate Shadan Farasat who said that the girls are unable to appear for exams due to the ban on hijab in government colleges..Farasat told the court that the girls had already lost one year and the upcoming exams were on March 9. "I will take a call on this," the CJI said..The case was earlier mentioned by Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora on Jaunary 23, who told the court that there were practical exams scheduled this month for which the Muslim students affected by the case were slated to appear.Hence, interim directions were needed in the matter so that the affected girl students may appear in the exams. At the time, the court had assured the petitioners that a date would be fixed for a three-judge bench to hear the matter soon..A division bench of the Supreme Court had in October last year, delivered a split verdict in the challenge to the government order (GO) which effectively empowered government colleges in the State to ban the wearing of hijab by Muslim girl students in college campus..The ban had initially been challenged before the Karnataka High Court, which upheld the State's ban. Following this, the matter reached the Supreme Court. Justice Hemant Gupta (now retired) upheld the ban and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia struck it down, necessitating hearing of the case by a larger bench. .The petitioner girl students have contended that after a split verdict by the Supreme Court in the matter, the affected students moved to private colleges from government colleges.However, since exams can be held only in government colleges, directions have to be issued before they would be permitted to appear for the February exams while wearing the hijab.