Allahabad HC upholds school uniform rules, rejects plea to wear hijab
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Prayagraj ,August 25: The Allahabad High Court has upheld the authority of a school to enforce its prescribed dress code, observing that wearing a headscarf or hijab cannot be permitted when it violates the institution’s uniform policy.
A division bench of Justices J.J. Munir and Indrajit Shukla made the observation while dismissing a petition filed by Sukaina Rizvi, a minor student of Tagore Public School in Attarsuiya, Prayagraj. Rizvi had sought permission to wear a headscarf along with the prescribed school uniform while seeking admission to Class 11.
However, when she sought admission to Class 11, the school management said that the headscarf violated its dress code and refused admission on that ground. The student subsequently submitted complaints to the District Magistrate on May 14 and June 10, 2026.
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The school maintained that it was a co-educational institution where students from different communities studied together and that the uniform rules applied equally to everyone. Granting an exemption to one student, it argued, could affect the uniform system.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that wearing the headscarf was connected to freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a), dignity and bodily autonomy, besides being claimed as a religious practice. The state government and CBSE, however, maintained that the institution was a private, unaided school and that its uniform policy was an institutional matter.
The High Court emphasised that uniforms promote discipline, equality, institutional identity and a secular environment by applying the same standards to students of all religions.
The court also referred to earlier judgments, including the Kerala High Court’s decision in Fathima Thasneem v. State of Kerala, the Bombay High Court’s observations on hijab, and the Karnataka High Court’s 2022 hijab judgment in Resham v. State of Karnataka.