Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said, "The hijab controversy has many dimensions. (File photo)

Bellary (Karnataka):

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said the Supreme Court's final decision on hijab will be important as it will be applicable to the entire country.

"The final decision on the hijab controversy is very important as it will affect not only Karnataka but the entire country," he told reporters in Huvinahadgali.

So the final decision will have to wait.

Bommai said that two judges of the apex court have given their verdict on the dispute and he will react only after reading the copy of the verdict.

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court gave a divided verdict yesterday (Thursday) on the hijab ban in Karnataka.

Thereafter, the division bench referred it to the CJI, so that the matter could be referred to a larger bench and the appeal against the decision of the Karnataka High Court could be heard.

Earlier, while delivering his verdict, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia had favored Muslim girl students.

Bommai said, "The hijab controversy has many dimensions. The demand of the girl students is different, while the order of the government is different. Since it involves national and international issues, the government is expecting a clear verdict from the court."

Justice Hemant Gupta, the second judge hearing the case, dismissed the appeal against the Karnataka High Court's decision refusing to lift the ban on hijab in educational institutions.

Agreeing with the High Court's decision, Justice Gupta said, "There is a difference of opinion."

Justice Gupta upheld the judgment of the Karnataka High Court, saying, "Essential religious practices of the followers of Sikhism cannot be made a ground to wear hijab/headscarf by the believers of Islamic faith."

However, Justice Dhulia, who also remarked that what constitutes essential religious practices has been left to the doctrine of that religion, said that "it may or may not be a matter of essential religious practice, but it is still a matter of conscience, It's a matter of belief and expression."


Justice Dhulia, writing a separate 73-page judgment, said, "To ask girls to remove the hijab before entering the school gate is first an invasion of their privacy, then it is an attack on their dignity, and then finally it is an attack on their dignity." For them secular education is to be denied.