A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court, in an order of August 21, 2026, dismissed the petition filed by a Class 11 student seeking permission to wear a headscarf along with the prescribed uniform at the Tagore Public School in Prayagraj. File
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
The AllahabadHigh Court recently held that wearing a headscarf could not be established as an “essential religious practice” of Islam. The observation was made in a case involving a Muslim student’s demand to wear a hijab with her school uniform.
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A Division Bench of Justices J.J. Munir and Indrajeet Shukla, in an order of August 21, 2026, dismissed the petition filed by a Class 11 student seeking permission to wear a headscarf along with the prescribed uniform at the Tagore Public School in Prayagraj.
In her plea, the student had argued that wearing the scarf was an essential religious practice protected by her fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. She had worn a headscarf at the same school from Class 6 onwards without objection, she said.
The fact that the student had worn the scarf for several years did not create an enforceable right to compel the school to relax or alter its uniform policy, the High Court said.
“We have perused the photographs from various classes relating to the petitioner. Except for her, no other girl student is donning the headscarf, even those belonging to the same religious community as the petitioner. Wherever this issue has arisen, the High Courts have been unanimous in opinion that wearing a headscarf is not essential part of the Islamic faith for a woman to don, in the absence of which faith would be jeopardized,” the HC said.
No factual foundation had been laid nor material placed on record to establish a case that the donning of a headscarf was an essential part of religion for a Muslim female, forsaking which would oust the girl or woman concerned from the faith that she professed and practised, the High Court said.
The Allahabad High Court relied on earlier judgments by the Bombay High Court and Karnataka High Court concerning hijab. The Bombay High Court held that not wearing a head covering in an all-girls section did not violate essential Islamic practices. A Karnataka Full Bench similarly found the hijab was not an essential religious practice, while noting the Supreme Court’s split verdict.
The Allahabad HC concluded that the dispute was principally about compliance with an institutional dress code rather than interference with the student’s freedom of faith.
“The school in this case does not seek to curtail the petitioner’s freedom of faith at all. All that they require is conformity to institutional discipline, of which a uniform is an essential part. In the event individual students were permitted to aid or depart even a little bit from the prescribed uniform on subjective grounds, it would militate against the idea of a uniform. It would transfer the authority to determine school discipline from the institution to individual students,” the High Court said.
Published – August 25, 2026 04:51 pm IST
