A ban on the practice of wearing hijabs at educational institutions in Karnataka will continue as the matter is pending in the top court, state school education and literacy minister Madhu Bangarappa said on Friday.
Addressing the media ahead of the upcoming SSLC examinations, Bangarappa said that the existing dress code, which bans the headscarf, will continue.
“Since the matter is in court, we will not take any further decisions on it… What is allowed by the court (dress code) will remain,” he said.
The hijab controversy first broke out in January 2022, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in power in the state, when the administration of the Government PU College in Udupi denied entry to six students for wearing hijab.
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Their protests outside the institution triggered counterprotests, with Hindu students donning saffron shawls in several schools.
The tension prompted the Karnataka government to issue an order on February 5, 2022, prohibiting religious attire in institutions with a mandated dress code under the Karnataka Education Act, 1983.
The Karnataka High Court issued an interim order on February 11, 2022, banning all religious symbols, including hijabs and saffron shawls, in classrooms.
Later in March, the HC ruled that wearing the hijab was not essential to the practice of Islam and upheld the government’s order.
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The students challenged this verdict in the Supreme Court, which resulted in a split decision, which is pending review by a larger bench.
Earlier this month, Bangarappa suggested that the Congress-led government in the state was likely to review the ban, following which state home minister G Parameshwara said a meeting on the issue was likely.
However, the education minister on Friday declined to elaborate citing ongoing legal proceedings.
Apart from the hijab issue, Bangarappa announced a return to pre-pandemic evaluation criteria for SSLC examinations.
Students will now be required to score a minimum of 35% in all subjects to pass, as the state government rolls back pandemic-era relaxations that had temporarily lowered the passing threshold, he said.
In 2024, following a significant drop in SSLC pass rates, the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) lowered the qualifying marks to 25% and increased grace marks to 20% to prevent mass failures. However, Bangarappa confirmed that these measures will not be extended this year.
“The SSLC results had fallen due to examination reforms, including web-streaming last year. Therefore, the state government had decided to enhance normalisation in the interest of students,” he said.
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“However, this year, the qualifying marks will not be reduced for any reason, and grace marks will not be given in any subject.”
The SSLC examinations will be conducted from March 21 to April 4, with 8,96,447 students enrolled from 15,881 high schools across the state.
To prevent malpractices, the examination process will be closely monitored through webcasting at 2,818 exam centres.
Similarly, the II PU exam has also seen an increase in student registration, with 15,238 additional students enrolled compared to last year. These exams will take place in 1,171 centres across Karnataka.