It has been more than two years since the Supreme Court reserved its decision on hijab ban.
In October 2022, a 2-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict in the Karnataka hijab ban appeal. Justice Hemant Gupta upheld the Karnataka High Court’s decision while on the other hand, Justice Dhulia quashed the High Court’s decision.
Neither Judge commented on the essentiality of the hijab to Islam. Interestingly, even among the parties, the general consensus was that the question of whether wearing the hijab is an Essential Religious Practice should not be the focus of the case. However, ERP arguments dominated the hearings, spanning 14 of the nearly 25 hours of hearings.
The split decision by the 2-Judge Bench meant that a larger Bench should hear the case. The decision remains reserved as the larger bench has not heard the case till date.
Recently, students from Bihar visited Rajya Sabha in connection with an internship programme. Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar presided over the concluding programme for the fourth batch of the participants.
Among the participants was hijab clad Ms Robab Zehra Rizvi daughter of Dr Kalbe Rashid Rizvi from Bihar. She was honoured by the country’s Vice-President and Rajya Sabha chairman as she received her participation certificate from him.
During his interaction with the interns, the Vice-President stressed on the importance of lifelong learning. He reminded them to be mindful of their duties as citizens and urged them to serve the nation with pride.
The hijab-clad Ms Robab Rizvi Zehra attending her internship programme in the highest temple of democracy (Rajya Sabha) and receiving the participation certificate from the Vice-President depicts the beauty of India’s democracy.
Zehra’s confidence has once again proven beyond doubt that what to wear and what not to wear is a matter of choice. Nothing more, nothing less. It should be left to Muslim women to decide whether they want to wear the hijab or not.