• Thursday, March 28, 2024

HEADLINE STORY

Why India Supreme Court asked whether right to undress is a fundamental right

Students hold placards and shout slogans during a demonstration against Karnataka’s high court decision to upheld a local ban on the hijab in classrooms, in Chennai on March 16, 2022. (Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

By: Shubham Ghosh

A Supreme Court judge in India on Wednesday (7) questioned the line of arguments of petitioners in the school hijab (headcover worn by Muslim women) ban case in the southern state of Karnataka to ask them not to take things to illogical ends.

A Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta told senior lawyer Dev Datt Kamat, representing one of the petitioners, “We can’t take it to illogical ends. If you say right to dress is a fundamental right then right to undress also becomes a fundamental right.” Kamat then said that nobody was undressing in the school.

It all happened on the second day of the apex court’s hearing of petitions challenging the March 15 verdict of the Karnataka High Court which upheld the ban on hijab in the state’s schools.

Kamat questioned the government of Karnataka’s order for lack of reasonable accommodation for students exercising the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression and right to religion. He even cited foreign judgments to back his contention.

The lawyer said that the Indian Constitution envisaged “positive secularism” and not “negative secularism” as practised by nations such as France where no religious symbol was allowed to be displayed in open.

He said that the right to dress is something the Supreme Court recognises under Article 19(1) of the Constitution as part of freedom of speech and expression.

The Bench then said that the problem was that one community was insisting on wearing a headscarf, while others followed the prescribed uniform and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday (8).

The Bench also included Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.

When Kamat argued that many students wear ‘rudraksh‘ or cross as a religious symbol, Justice Gupta said, “That is worn inside the shirt. Nobody is going to lift the shirt and see if someone is wearing rudraksh.”

“No one is bothered by what one wears inside the shirt,” the Bench said.

The row started in January at a government institute in Udupi, Karnataka, where six female students alleged that they were not allowed to enter classrooms wearing the hijab. They began a protest and it soon became a statewide issue.

Hindu students then held counter demonstrations wearing saffron scarves and it spread to other states too.

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