Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court has ruled that students cannot seek individual changes to a school’s prescribed uniform based on personal preference, while dismissing a petition filed by a student who sought permission to wear a headscarf along with her school uniform.
The case was brought before the court by a minor student of a private school in Prayagraj through her mother. Having completed high school, the student was seeking admission to Class XI in the same institution.
The petitioner requested that the school be directed to allow her to wear a headscarf in addition to the prescribed uniform. She argued that the headscarf formed an essential part of her religious practice and stated that she had been wearing it since Class VI while studying at the same school.
However, a Division Bench comprising Justices J.J. Munir and Indrajit Shukla did not accept the contention. The court noted that photographs from the student’s earlier school years showed that other girl students, including those from the same religious community, were not wearing a headscarf.
The High Court also rejected the claim that wearing a headscarf was an essential religious practice whose absence would affect the practice of the faith. In its judgment delivered on August 21, the court observed that the claim made in the petition had not been sufficiently established.
Emphasising the importance of institutional discipline, the court said that educational institutions are entitled to enforce their prescribed dress codes, provided the rules are fair, non-discriminatory and applied equally to all students.
The bench further held that unaided private educational institutions have the authority to maintain their own uniform regulations. Allowing individual students to modify or depart from the prescribed uniform on the basis of personal choice, the court said, could undermine the very purpose of having a common dress code.
According to the school, it is a private, self-financed institution with students from different communities and follows a uniform policy applicable to everyone. The school argued that granting a special exemption to one student could affect discipline and compromise uniformity within the institution.
The State Government and the CBSE also opposed the petition.
With the ruling, the Allahabad High Court reaffirmed that where a school’s dress code is applied uniformly and without discrimination, students do not have an automatic right to seek individual alterations to the prescribed uniform.
