“Just like last year, students have to wear a uniform and write an exam. Students wearing hijab will not be allowed to write the exam. Rules must be followed. Educational institutions and the government act according to set rules,” said Nagesh.
The minister also said there had been an improvement in the number of Muslim students appearing for exams after the hijab ban, but did not provide any exact figures to back up his claims.
“After the hijab ban, more Muslim nurses appeared for exams and now more Muslim female students are enrolled. our figures show that after the hijab issue, the number of Muslim nurses presenting for examination and their enrollment increased,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition seeking an immediate list of petitions for an order to government institutions in Karnataka to allow students to appear for exams in hijab.
“I will constitute a bench,” he told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud after a defense lawyer sought an urgent hearing of the petition on the grounds that the girls were on the verge of losing another academic year as exams were about to begin. from March 9 in government schools that did not allow the hijab.
The Supreme Court closes for the Holi break on March 6 and reopens on March 13.
On 15 March 2022, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi delivered a 129-page verdict ruling that the hijab was not a “fundamental religious practice”, paving the way. for banning the hijab in pre-university colleges in the state.
The verdict came after eight Muslim students who were prevented from entering class wearing hijab went to court.
On January 1, 2022, the College Development Council (CDC) passed an order banning the hijab inside university/school campuses, which resulted in students sitting outside the college building but inside the campus in protest.
The college authorities claimed that the hijab was never allowed inside the classrooms. In February last year, when the controversy spread across the state, there were counter-protests with some students wearing saffron scarves.
On February 3, a video of the principal of a government PU college closing the gates to at least 25 hijab-wearing students in Udupi’s Kundapura turned the issue into a wider movement.
The controversy has since played out in ugly ways in Karnataka, where right-wing groups have extended demands to ban halal meat, azaan prayers over loudspeakers, restrict Muslims from attending temple fairs and get the Hindu community to stop doing business with Muslims.
