Women should be "freed" from wearing hijab: Anil Vij on SC`s decision

Chandigarh [India], October 13 : On a day when the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on the hijab ban in Karnataka, Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Thursday refrained to comment on the decision of the apex court which referred the issue to the larger bench, adding that men have to keep their intentions in check and women should be "freed" from wearing the hijab.
Speaking to ANI, Vij said, "Don't want to comment on the Supreme Court verdict but I think women were covered up so men don't develop ill intentions. It means fault lies within men. They should keep their intentions in check."
He further said that today voice has been raised against Hijab all over the world and it should be accepted.
"Women in Iran are burning hijab, voices being raised in France. It is voice of the hour Let women roam according to their wish," he added.
Earlier taking to Twitter, the Haryana Home Minister said that the men who could not control their excitement upon seeing women forced women to wear hijab.
"The men who could not control their excitement upon seeing women forced women to wear hijab. The need was to strengthen their mind, but the punishment was given to the women, they were covered from head to toe. This is a grave injustice," Vij said in a tweet in Hindi.
A two-judge bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and Sudhanshu Dhulia pronounced the judgement today.
While Justice Hemant Gupta stated that was a "divergence of opinion" as he dismissed the bunch of petitions against the March 15 Karnataka High Court order on the hijab matter, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the appeals and set aside the HC verdict.
"It's a matter of choice, nothing more nothing less," Justice Dhulia said while pronouncing the order.
Justice Gupta said, "There is a divergence of opinion. In my order, I have framed 11 questions. First is whether the appeal should be referred to the Constitution Bench."
Advocate Ezaz Maqbool, representing the petitioner said that the matter will be placed before the Chief Justice of India and he will decide whether a new bench will hear the matter or the matter gets referred to a larger bench.
The apex court had earlier reserved its order on various petitions challenging the Karnataka High Court upholding the ban on hijab in educational institutes.
The arguments in the matter went on for 10 days in which 21 lawyers from the petitioners' side and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj, Karnataka Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi argued for the respondents.
The court was hearing various pleas challenging the Karnataka HC's judgement upholding the Karnataka Government's decision to direct educational institutes to prescribe uniforms in educational institutes.
One of the appeals in the top court had alleged "step-motherly behaviour of government authorities which has prevented students from practising their faith and resulted in an unwanted law and order situation".
The appeal said the High Court in its impugned order "had vehemently failed to apply its mind and was unable to understand the gravity of the situation as well as the core aspect of the Essential Religious Practices enshrined under Article 25 of the Constitution of India".
A bench of Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit, and Justice JM Khazi had earlier held that the prescription of uniform is a reasonable restriction that students could not object to and dismissed various petitions challenging a ban on hijab in education institutions saying they are without merit.
The hijab row erupted in January this year when the Government PU College in Udupi allegedly barred six girls wearing the hijab from entering. Following this, the girls sat in protest outside the college over being denied entry.
After this, boys of several colleges in Udupi started attending classes wearing saffron scarves. This protest spread to other parts of the state as well leading to protests and agitations in several places in Karnataka.
As a result, the Karnataka government said that all students must adhere to the uniform and banned both hijab and saffron scarves till an expert committee decided on the issue.
On February 5, the pre-University education board released a circular stating that the students could only wear the uniform approved by the school administration and no other religious attire would be allowed in colleges.