The Allahabad High Court has ruled that a student cannot claim the right to alter a school’s prescribed dress code to suit personal preference, dismissing a plea by a Muslim girl seeking permission to wear a hijab (headscarf) with her uniform.

A bench of Justices JJ Munir and Indrajit Shukla passed the order on August 21, rejecting the petition filed by a minor student of Tagore Public School in Attarsuiya, Prayagraj, reported LiveLaw. The petitioner, identified as Sukaina Rizvi, had completed Class X at the school and sought admission to Class XI there.

The girl moved the court through her mother, asking that authorities be directed to let her wear a headscarf in addition to the uniform prescribed for all students. She said she had worn the hijab from Class VI to Class X without any objection from the school and argued that the practice was an essential part of her Islamic faith.

The bench was not convinced. Examining photographs from the petitioner’s earlier classes, the judges noted that she was the only student seen wearing a headscarf, including among others from her own religious community.

The court also rejected the claim that the hijab is an essential religious practice. “Wherever this issue has arisen, the high courts have been unanimous in opinion that wearing a headscarf is not an essential part of the Islamic faith for a woman to don in the absence of which faith would be jeopardised,” the bench observed.

According to the ruling, any unaided private educational institution has full authority to enforce a uniform dress code, provided it is fair, non-discriminatory and aimed at maintaining discipline and equality. The court said allowing individual students to modify the uniform on personal grounds would defeat its purpose and shift control over school discipline from the institution to the students themselves.

The school, a private, self-financed institution, told the court that granting an exemption to one student could undermine discipline and uniformity among its diverse student body. The Uttar Pradesh government and the CBSE also opposed the petition.

The Allahabad HC order draws on a Karnataka High Court full bench ruling on the same question, which was later split on appeal by a two-judge Supreme Court bench in the Aishat Shifa case, leaving no final pronouncement from India’s top court on the issue.