Mookuthi: Will a South African court’s protection to a Hindu girl have any bearing on Hijab Ban case?

Will mookuthi, a diminutive ornament that adorns the noses of Indian women, be a deciding factor in the hijab ban matter - one of the most riveting courtroom battles in the recent past?.The hijab ban hearing before the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday witnessed a tale of how the mookuthi assumed significance in South Africa - the country where the Father of the Nation began his political journey - in the context of personal and religious freedoms..Senior Counsel Devadatt Kamat, arguing on behalf of Muslim student petitioners, relied heavily on the 2007 judgment of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in MEC for Education: Kwazulu-Natal v. Navaneethum Pillay..This case came about after Sunali Pillay, a Hindu girl of Tamil origin, started wearing a mookuthi or nose stud to the Durban Girls’ High School. The School objected to the same, saying it violated its code of conduct.Sunali’s mother explained that it was part of their culture to pierce a young woman’s nose. As per custom, the stud is inserted when the girl reaches physical maturity, as an indication that she had become eligible for marriage. The stud was not for fashion purposes, but was part of a long-standing family tradition, it was said.The School, however, did not allow the same and Sunali took the matter to the Equality Court, which ruled against her. Sunali then appealed to the Pietermaritzburg High Court, which ruled in her favour.The High Court highlighted the vulnerable and marginalised status of Hindus and Indians in South Africa’s past and present, the demeaning effect of denying Sunali’s religion - and hence her identity - as well as the systemic nature of the discrimination. The Court held further that the desire to maintain discipline in the School was not an acceptable reason for the prohibition, as there was no evidence that wearing the nose stud had a disruptive effect on the smooth running of the School.The School then appealed to the Constitutional Court of South Africa..The Constitutional Court held that the decision of the Governing Body of the School to refuse Sunali Pillay an exemption from its code of conduct to allow her to wear a nose stud discriminated unfairly against her.The Governing Body was ordered, in consultation with the students, parents and educators, to make amendments to the school’s code of conduct to provide for reasonable accommodation of deviations from the code on religious or cultural grounds..During yesterday's hearing, Kamat relied upon this judgment, arguing,“What the judgment suggests is that there should be a certain degree of accommodation. That you can't send a message to someone in a community that a particular religion or culture is not welcome. The judgment said that the practice has to be seen from the point of the believer, same as what Bjioe Emmanuel (judgment of Supreme Court of India) said,” Kamat argued.He relied on passages from the judgment which said that the notion that “we are not islands unto ourselves” is central to the understanding of the individual in African thought.“Our scriptures also say the same. And that is what is expressed even in the distant African land. I thought it was quite astonishing,” Kamat said.Kamat also pointed how the school had argued that allowing one student to wear a nose stud might in the future lead to a "parade of horribles," since more students will come with dreadlocks, body piercings, lion claws etc.“The same argument is being raised here. The (South African) Court in that case found that this argument has no merit since the judgment applies only to bona fide religious and cultural practice. The Court of South Africa said that display of religion and culture is not a parade of horribles but a pageant of diversity which will only enrich our country,” Kamat said..Being a judgment from a foreign court, this judgment does not have any binding value on Indian courts, something which the Bench pointed out.Nevertheless, the similarity of the issue being debated has many a time been the ground for Constitutional courts in India to rely upon foreign jurisprudence while deciding fundamental rights cases in India.Will a nose stud have the same effect?Read more from hearing before Karnataka High Court hearing here..[Read Judgment of Constitutional Court of South Africa]