MHC dismisses a petition filed to stop students from wearing religious attires in schools

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by a right-wing functionary seeking direction to the state to pass orders to stop the act of wearing religious attires by students in the schools.

A division bench comprising Justice M Duraiswamy and Justice TV Thamilselvi dismissed the plea by K Gopinath who claims to be the president of Hindu Munnetra Kazhagam.

The judges while dismissing the petition asked how the High Court could hear this matter while already a petition with a similar prayer is pending before the Apex Court.

Since the bench granted liberty to the petitioner to withdraw this petition, Gopinath's counsel agreed to withdraw it.

The petitioner claimed that students at several places are wearing add-ons like hijabs, religious attires and so on that create inequality among students and would pave way for a mess in the institution.

"Chapter 1V, Rule 14(iii) of code for uniforms in primary and nursery schools wants students to wear uniforms. However, the same was not followed by students at many places," the petitioner submitted.