The Bijnor police have taken note of the incident. They also took to social media to inform that a probe has been ordered into the matter.
Team Clarion
BIJNOR – Days after the Supreme Court stayed the ban on hijab in a Mumbai college, several hijab-clad Muslim girls were barred from a college in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.
The incident at Janta Inter College in the district’s Mahua of Thana Kotwali Dehat came to light when a video of the girls in college uniforms surfaced on social media. The video showed the hijab-wearing girls in college uniforms roaming idly in the vicinity of the college premises. When asked why they were not attending the classes, the girls claimed they were thrown out of the college by principal Shivendra Pal Singh.
The girls said they were even asked to come to the college after removing their dupattas and wearing loose garments across their necks. They were also told not to keep their dupattas on their heads and keep their hair tied.
“We were thrown out of the college after the assembly prayer. We were asked to come with our guardians,” said the girls.
According to reports, the action of the principal has drawn anger and disappointment among the guardians of the girls. They described it as an attack on the freedom of religion and a violation of religious rights. They called on the school authorities to respect the religious rights of students.
As the video of the girls went viral on social media, the Bijnor police took note of the incident. They also took to social media to inform that a probe has been ordered into the matter.
“The District Magistrate Bijnor has directed the District Inspector of School to investigate the matter,” said Bijnor police.
The police also tried to arrange a meeting between college authorities and guardians to resolve the issue.
On Friday, the Supreme Court stayed a part of the Mumbai college circular which banned the wearing of hijab, caps, or badges but refrained from staying the other restrictions like wearing niqabs (veil covering the face), even as it questioned whether the institution would impose similar restrictions on sporting tilaks and bindis.
Questioning the logic behind the imposition of such restrictions, the apex court noted that if the idea was to prevent a student from disclosing his or her religious identity then by the same yardstick even names of the wards would in any case disclose their religious denomination.
“What is this? Don’t impose such conditions. Your argument is that you don’t want students’ religion to be revealed. Would you then want the students to be allotted numbers at the gates instead of their names so that their religion is not revealed?” the bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar asked senior advocate Madhavi Divan representing the college.
The court was dealing with a petition filed by a batch of Muslim students challenging a Bombay High Court order of June 26, by which it had upheld the decision of the NG Acharya and DK Marathe College to ban students from wearing hijabs, niqabs, burqa, stoles, caps, etc that reveal the religious identity of the students.
