Court backs expulsion of Muslim pupil over beard

A Supreme Court ruling dismisses a Muslim boy's case against his school after he had been expelled for wearing a beard.

NEW DEHLI // A Supreme Court ruling that dismissed a Muslim boy's case against his school after he had been expelled for wearing a beard, saying it would not allow the "Talibanisation" of the country, has drawn mixed reactions from Indian Muslims. Justice Markandeya Katju, a member of the Supreme Court bench that delivered the verdict on Monday, said: "We don't want to have Taliban in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa [in the school] - can we allow that?"

While students and teachers supported the verdict, others detected Islamophobia in Mr Katju's comparisons to the Taliban. Aziz Mubaraki, a Muslim community leader in Kolkata, said the judge's comments were "unpleasant and painful". "If growing a beard is akin to being a Taliban then I would like to ask, were Rabindranath Tagore, Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln, and more recently, our prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and [Hindu extremist leader] Bal Thackeray also terrorists?"

Mohammad Salim, 16, a former Grade 10 student at Nirmala Convent Higher Secondary School in the Bidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, was expelled in December when he refused to obey orders to shave off his beard. Being clean-shaven is mandatory for all students at the school. The boy's family filed a petition in Madhya Pradesh's highest court, which ruled in favour of the school. They then brought their case before the Supreme Court in New Delhi this month.

Mr B A Khan, Salim's lawyer, contended in his petition to the Supreme Court that the Indian constitution guarantees all citizens the right to pursue their religious practices and the right to keep a beard was a fundamental part of a Muslim's religion. Any regulation making it mandatory for a Muslim student to shave his beard violated this provision, he said, urging the court to quash the school rule and order the school to take Salim back.

Salim's petition also said the school allowed Sikh students to have beards and wear turbans but, in his case, had insisted that he either be clean-shaven or leave. This was clearly discriminatory, Mr Khan argued. Mr Katju said an individual's religious beliefs should be respected but within reason. "I am a secularist to the core. We should strike a balance between rights and personal beliefs. We cannot overstretch secularism either," he said.

The Supreme Court also said religious minority institutions, like Nirmala Convent school, which is Christian, should have the right to have their own sets of rules as outlined in the constitution. However, Monday's ruling is not the first time a Muslim has been turned down in moving to be allowed to wear a beard in an institution where doing so is forbidden. Last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court turned down a plea by a Muslim Indian air force serviceman for the right to grow a beard. In a letter to the court the IAF had said only Sikhs were allowed to grow beards in the air force and Muslims were forbidden since the "practice" is "not universally recognised in Islam" as a religious duty.

"Growing beards can be at the most said to be a personal choice, but the same is not a compulsive requirement of a person professing Islam. Even if it is presumed to be so, it can be regulated, restricted, if public order, morality and health so requires," the high court ruling said. Several Muslim leaders expressed concern over the way the Supreme Court worded its verdict, equating bearded Muslims with members of the Taliban.

Mumbai-based journalist Hasan Kamaal said few would agree with Mr Katju's view that every Muslim who keeps a beard supports the Taliban or extremism. "Several non-Muslims also sport beards. The beard is not a sign of orthodoxy, extremism or fanaticism. The remark of Justice Katju, hinting that all bearded men are Talibans, is absolutely unjustified and discriminatory." Zafarul Islam Khan, president of the All India Muslim Majlis-e Mushawarat, an umbrella body of Indian Muslim organisations, said the sentiment of Mr Katju's remarks contravened basic human rights.

"This bizarre and uncalled for opinion flies in the face of the religious, civil and human rights of every Indian citizen guaranteed by our constitution. A Muslim's request to be allowed to grow beard cannot be equated as 'Talibanisation' of the country," Mr Khan said in a statement yesterday. "It is very unfortunate that a Supreme Court judge should nurse such biased and communal ideas and hide behind his claim that he is "a secularist to the core."