The Allahabad High Court has ruled that students cannot claim a right to change a school’s prescribed dress code based on personal preferences. The court dismissed a petition filed by a minor student from Prayagraj who sought permission to wear a headscarf along with the uniform prescribed by her school.

The student, who studies at a private school in Prayagraj, had passed her high school examination and wanted admission to Class XI in the same institution. She approached the court through her mother and asked for directions to the school authorities to allow her to wear a headscarf with the prescribed uniform.

The petition argued that wearing a headscarf was an essential part of Islamic practice. It also stated that the student had been wearing a headscarf since Class VI while studying at the same school. The school, however, maintained that it follows a uniform dress code for all its students.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices JJ Munir and Indrajit Shukla examined photographs of the student from different classes. The court noted that no other girl in the school was wearing a headscarf, including students belonging to the same religious community.

The court observed, "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."

The bench also rejected the student’s claim that wearing a headscarf is an essential religious practice under Islam. The court referred to earlier decisions on the issue and said that various high courts have taken a similar view.

"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 court added.

In its judgment passed on August 21, the High Court also said that the claim made in the petition about the religious importance of the headscarf was not supported by sufficient material. "It is to be noted that the assertion in the writ petition that wearing a headscarf is an essential religious practice is a bare assertion."

The court further held that an unaided private educational institution has the right to enforce a uniform dress code on its premises. It said that students must follow the prescribed uniform when the rules apply equally to everyone.

The bench noted that a uniform code is meant to maintain discipline and equality within an institution. If students are allowed to make individual changes to the prescribed uniform based on personal preferences, it could weaken the purpose of having a uniform in the first place.

The court said that a school retains autonomy over its internal discipline and dress code as long as its uniform policy is fair, non-discriminatory and applied equally to students. It also rejected the argument that an individual student could claim a legal right to add a headscarf to the prescribed uniform.

The school told the court that it is a private, self-financed educational institution with a uniform dress code for all students. It said children from different communities study there. Granting a special exemption to one student, it argued, could affect discipline and the uniformity of the dress code.

The State Government and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) also opposed the petition. After considering the arguments, the High Court dismissed the student’s plea and upheld the school’s authority to enforce its prescribed uniform rules.