"Absence of hijab will have a bad impact on society", says SP MP Shafiqur Rahman

On a day when the Supreme Court delivered a split verdict on the hijab ban, asking the pleas be presented in front of the CJI with a bigger bench, Samajwadi Party MP Shafiqur Rahman Barq stoked fresh controversy, saying that the "absence of hijab will have a bad impact on society". 

The leader added: "It is said in Islam that when girls start growing up they should wear hijab. Boys also start growing up. Society's atmosphere will be spoiled if they(girls)don't wear it."  

The Supreme Court on Thursday delivered a split verdict on the ban on hijabs in Karnataka's



educational institutions and referred the matter to the chief justice of India for constituting a larger bench.

While Justice Hemant Gupta dismissed the appeals against the March 15 verdict of the Karnataka High Court that had refused to lift the ban and held that hijab is not part of "essential religious practice" in Islamic faith, Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia allowed the pleas and observed that it is ultimately a "matter of choice".

"There is a divergence of opinion," Justice Gupta, who was heading the bench, said at the outset while pronouncing the verdict on a batch of 26 petitions.