New Delhi, September 12: The Supreme Court on Friday reprimanded a convent school in Madhya Pradesh for expelling a Muslim student for his beard and asked school authorities to take him back.
The court appeared disturbed that certain schools like Nirmala Convent were denying admission or asking students to leave for sporting ‘moustaches’. The judges saw no reason why the school should ask Mohd Salim, a class X student, to leave for abiding by his religious beliefs.
“Merely because you have a beard, they removed you? So if you are a Sikh, you will not be able to sport a beard?” wondered a bench of Justices BN Agarwal and GS Singhvi.
“Tomorrow they will say you are not fair complexioned,” the bench observed. An earlier bench headed by Justice Markandey Katju had rejected his plea, saying that the country couldn’t be ‘Talibanised’. Salim had filed a petition seeking a review of that order.
The current bench seemed aware that teenagers liked body piercing and asked whether that should become a ground for disqualifying them from school. “Nowadays, it has become a fashion for some people to pierce their ears. Will such persons not be allowed to study?” the bench said.
Earlier, Salim had filed a petition seeking review of Katju’s order. He objected to those observations and expressed apprehension over the impartiality of that bench. Later, justice RV Raveedran, who was sharing the bench with Justice Katju withdrew, forcing the CJI to refer the case to justices Agarwal and Singhvi.
–Agencies–