Ahead of hijab case verdict, Bengaluru bars public gatherings and protests

The order is being issued to maintain peace and law and order in the city, the Bengaluru Police Commissioner said.
Barricades put across a street in Bengaluru
Barricades put across a street in Bengaluru
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Ahead of the Karnataka High Court’s verdict in the hijab case, the Bengaluru Police Commissioner on Monday, March 14, banned public gatherings, celebrations or protests in the city for a week. The order issued by Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant prohibits any gathering, agitations, protests or celebrations of any type in any public place in Bengaluru for one week, from March 15 to March 21. 

The Commissioner said that this order is being issued as the hijab row has seen protests and agitations in many places, and the same can be cannot be ruled out after the Karnataka High Court delivers the verdict.

“Hence, in order to maintain public peace and order in Bengaluru city, it is considered appropriate to issue prohibitory order u/s 144(1) CrPC of 1973, for one week to ban gathering, agitations, protests, celebrations of any type in any public place in Bengaluru City,” the order reads. This order supersedes the earlier prohibitory orders issued by the commissioner barring gatherings outside schools and colleges in Bengaluru. 

“If anyone considers to have been adversely affected by this order, he can file an appeal to modify or cancellation of this order,” the commissioner added in the note. 

The police order comes into force on the day the full bench of the Karnataka High Court is likely to pronounce its verdict in the hijab case. The demand by a section of girl students of an Udupi pre-university college to wear the hijab inside their classrooms erupted into a major row after some Hindu students turned up in saffron shawls with the issue spreading to other parts of the state, even as the government insisted on a uniform norm. The full bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna S Dixit and Justice JM Khazi was constituted on February 9 on a petition filed by girls from Udupi who prayed that they should be allowed to wear hijab even inside the classroom along with the school uniform as it was part of their faith.

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