The SIO that had filed the PIL, withdrew the case “as a mark of protest” seeing what it called the decline of interest of Chief Justice H L Dattu in the dress code case.
By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: In a significant move, the Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere with the dress code prescribed by the CBSE for candidates appearing for the AIPMT exam on Saturday, July 25 barring them from wearing either a head scarf, full sleeve shirt or burqa.
Hours before the prestigious all India entrance examination, the Supreme Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) seeking quashing of rule 6(c) and 7(a) of the notification number CBSE/AIPMT/RE/2015/3282 that had imposed a dress code on students ahead of the July 25 All India Pre-Medical / Pre-Dental Entrance Test (AIPMT).
TCN file photo
The apex court bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu while rejecting the plea by SIO as “nothing but an ego” and remarked: “If you appear in an examination without a scarf, your faith will not disappear. Candidates can wear the head scarf after the exam is over.”
Strongly opposing the comments made by Chief Justice H L Dattu terming the plea as “nothing but an ego”, the SIO “as a mark of protest” withdrew the case against
CBSE (AIPMT) seeing what SIO calls the decline of interest of Chief Justice H L Dattu in the dress code case.
“Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India withdrew the case against CBSE (AIPMT) seeing the decline of interest of Chief Justice H L Dattu to obstruct with the dress code prescribed by the CBSE for candidates appearing for the AIPMT exam on Saturday July 25 2015,” Laeeq Ahmed Khan, national secretary SIO of India, said in a release.
The statement further reads that Shadan Farasat, the advocate appearing for SIO in the apex court had made repeated pleas before the jury that, “If the rule 6(c) and 7(a) of notification of CBSE are enforced, the petitioners will not be in a position to appear for AIPMT scheduled re-test for July 25, 2015, which would infringe their rights guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution of India.”
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court turned down the SIO plea observing that faith is something different from wearing a particular type of cloth. Incidentally, Kerala High Court had on July 21, 2015 allowed two of the petitioner girls to appear for their scheduled AIPMT exams wearing full sleeves and hijab. The court had directed the CBSE to depute a woman invigilator in the examination centre and also directed the petitioners to present themselves before the invigilator 30 minutes before the exam.
Earlier on July 9, the CBSE had issued a notification containing instructions for students which caused widespread condemnation across India, especially among young girls from minority community. Initially, the notification issued by the CBSE on July 9 had asked students to follow a particular dress code, which included wearing light color clothes with half sleeves shirt / T shirt / Kurta.
As scarf and full sleeve kurta is traditionally followed by Muslim girls as part of their religious obligation, the dress code had sent shock waves among Muslim female candidates who were preparing to appear at the AIPMT.
The CBSE had for the first time issued such an advisory as the AIPMT is being conducted afresh on Saturday, July 25 after the apex court had quashed the previous test last month over cases of cheating reported from different centers in Haryana and Rajasthan.
After much hue and cry from all quarters and sustained media campaign, two days prior to the scheduled entrance, the CBSE had on Wednesday softened it stand at the 11th hour by issuing a ‘Public Notice’ terming dress code as an advisory to prevent inconvenience caused from checking by metal detectors to the students appearing in the entrance examination and allowed students to wear customary dresses.
The Part (6) of ‘Public Notice’ issued by CBSE read as follow: “Dress code is suggested to avoid delay in entry in the examination centre and to avoid inconvenience to the candidates during frisking by metal detectors. Candidates wearing customary dress or such candidates appearing from centers in extreme climatic conditions should ensure their presence for frisking by metal detectors at least half an hour before the last reporting time i.e. 9.30 am,” read the statement.
(With Inputs from agencies)
Related:
AIPMT prescribes dress code for medical entrance: bans cap, scarf, full sleeves, shoes, tabeez