NO END TO HIJAB ROW!

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a split verdict on the ban on wearing hijab in Karnataka’s educational institutions, referring the matter to CJI for constituting a larger bench. Justice Hemant Gupta, dismissed the appeals against the Karnataka HC, which refused to lift the ban and held that the hijab is not part of the “essential religious practice” in Islamic faith. “There is divergence of opinion,” Justice Gupta, who was heading the bench, said at the outset while pronouncing the verdict on a batch of 26 petitions. He said he had framed 11 questions in his judgement. Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the pleas and said wearing the hijab is ultimately a “matter of choice”.