By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
New Delhi: It is his will to stick to his religious identity that is encouraging him to fight his case against his employer Indian Air Force and the Government of India. Corporal Mohammed Zubair wants to have beard even going against the IAF instructions.
On September 11, the Supreme Court of India issued notice to the Government of India, hearing on a petition filed by Corporal Mohammed Zubair seeking permission to have beard. Zubair has contended that the IAF rule banning its personnel recruited after 2002 from sporting a beard interferes with his faith.
Media reports say that the petitioner said the IAF rule curbed on his fundamental right to follow his religion which obliges him to grow a beard. The Central government’s point is that it pursued a policy free of religion and that it would not allow anyone in the armed forces to make himself distinct from his colleagues in the name of faith.
Zubair has challenged the validity of the IAF’s executive instructions of February 24 and April 1, 2003, prohibiting Muslim personnel from growing a beard.
The petitioner said that the executive direction is illegal, without any sanction or authority of law, and is against the spirit of Article 25 of the Constitution.
The case is being heard by a Bench comprising Justices C K Thakker and D K Jain.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan argued that anything which formed the core of religious practice could not be curtailed by the government.
When the Bench asked: “Does Quran mandate a Muslim to keep a beard?” Dhawan said: “It is in the Hadith and Sunna.”
He further said: “The government had put in place a permissive system, but it was changed arbitrarily,” he said, referring to the fact that till 2003, Air Headquarters did not stop Muslim personnel from keeping beards if they had permission from their superiors,” quotes the Times of India.
On this the Bench asked the government: Will the new rule be not seen as discriminatory as it allows some to keep a beard while restraining others from doing the same?