A full bench of the Karnataka High Court had held that wearing of hijab by women was not an essential religious practice of Islam.
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The Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on a batch of petitions challenging the judgment.
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Dispute erupted in Karnataka, when some Muslim students of a college who wanted to wear hijab to classes were denied entry on the grounds that it was a violation of the college’s uniform policy.
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Essential religious practice is a doctrine evolved by the Supreme Court to protect only such religious practices under fundamental rights, which are essential and integral to religion.
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The doctrine of “essentiality” was invented by the Supreme Court in the Shirur Mutt case- The Commissioner, Hindu Religious Endowments, Madras vs. Sri Lakshmindra Thirtha Swamiar of Sri Shirur Mutt 1954 Air 282 in 1954, it was held that to determine what constituted an ‘essential’ aspect of religion, the Court ought to look towards the religion concerned, and to what its adherents believed was demanded by their faith.