Guest Post: The Hijab Case through the Lens of Article 19(1)(a)

[This is a guest post by Hari Kartik Ramesh.]

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Controversy has raged in the corridors of educational institutions in Karnataka on the matter of uniforms. In the beginning of 2022, the Karnataka government issued an order to government educational institutions, insisting that the administration of each educational institution follow the policy of prescribing a singular uniform policy for their institutions. The order noted that clothes which disturbed public order, equality and integrity within the schools would be banned. The order noted that the government had noticed a trend of religious attire being worn instead of merely the prescribed uniform and argued that this disturbed equality and public order within schools. The order was used by administrations of educational institutions in colleges in Karnataka to bar Muslim women wearing the Hijab from entering the educational institute. In some cases, though the women were allowed to enter the institute, they were segregated and attended classes separately from other students.

Prima facie, the matter appears to be an issue primarily concerning the freedom to religion enshrined under Article 25. It may be argued that Hijabs are essential to the religion of Islam, and therefore by debarring Muslim women from educational institutions for wearing the Hijab, their freedom to express their religion is being infringed upon by the State. While intuitively an argument along the lines of freedom of religion is attractive – and indeed, it is precisely the line of argument counsel for the petitioning Muslim women argued in the Karnataka High Court, it presents several issues. This piece shall argue that rather than a freedom of religion-based judgement, the High Court ought to base its judgement on the grounds of Freedom of Expression.

The Problem With Article 25-centric Arguments

The question of which aspects of a religion are guaranteed protection under Article 25 of the Constitution is a complex one. In order for the state to be unable to interfere with the religious practice, it must be proven that the practice constitutes an essential part of the religion. This Essential Religious Practices (ERP) test has been critiqued by scholars for several decades. They have noted that under the ERP, the court often becomes a theological institution, and effectively results in non-followers of a religion explaining to followers of a religion how certain practices are not in fact essential to their religion. Even if the judges did follow the religion in question, courts are generally not equipped to conduct such theological enquiries, are ill-suited for the task, and consequently have failed to produce a consistent framework or guidelines regarding how the court ought to carry out the enquiry of whether a practice is indeed an ERP.

Only a narrow sliver of religious practices are recognised as an essential religious practice. For example, mosques were considered not essential to Islam and a religious dance was considered not essential to a community, despite the fact that the religious documents of the community explicitly labelled it as an essential practice. It may very well be argued that a Hijab will satisfy the test for essential religious practices. However as precedent, only those who are able to prove that their outfit, or accessory on their uniform, is of a religious nature and essential to the religion, would be able to receive constitutional protection. Thus, as precedent, the judgement may have extremely limited value.

However, I propose instead that the court has an opportunity to build on its free speech jurisprudence. Grounding the reasoning in the terms of compelled speech would give protection to a more varied form of expressions and objections as opposed to purely religions terms. Indeed, as shown above, many religious objections may also fall foul to the high standard of ERP imposed by the Supreme Court. Therefore, the approach of compelled speech and expression would be a more suitable path for the court to utilise.

Clothes as a Form of Symbolic Speech

There is a long history of small amendments to uniforms being used to send a political message. School children in the United States wore black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s. In India students have worn black badges in Manipur, as a sign of solidarity for public demands for strict punishments for certain murderers. University students wore black armbands to protest lack of pay for Physiotherapists, violence in Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2020 etc. These are clear examples where political views were expressed through a piece of clothing such as badges or armbands. Students have used such simple, yet effective and symbolic means of protests for decades.

School children in Des Moines were punished for black armbands as it was argued the armbands violated the school uniform. The case reached the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) wherein the court laid down its famous judgement of Tinker v Des Moines Independent School District that the black armbands was constitutionally protected speech. The majority observed that school students had not surrendered any of their fundamental rights by deciding to enrol in a school, observing that:

“First Amendment rights, applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

The court noted that due to the circumstances surrounding the armbands, that is, the students were wearing it to specifically protest the Vietnam War and were therefore making a political statement, such symbolic conduct would amount to speech. The court noted:

“It was closely akin to ‘pure speech’ which, we have repeatedly held, is entitled to comprehensive protection under the First Amendment. “

As it was an issue of free speech, the court noted that the only reason for which restrictions may be placed on symbolic speech/conduct amounting to speech is when such conduct caused an immediate disturbance and disturbed the peace and order of the school. The majority noted that black armbands by themselves could not constitute a disturbance to any form of public order and therefore the punishments faced by students were unconstitutional as it amounted to an infringement on their right to free speech. The majority concluded its opinion, observing:

“These petitioners merely went about their ordained rounds in school. Their deviation consisted only in wearing on their sleeve a band of black cloth, not more than two inches wide. They wore it to exhibit their disapproval of the Vietnam hostilities and their advocacy of a truce, to make their views known, and, by their example, to influence others to adopt them. They neither interrupted school activities nor sought to intrude in the school affairs or the lives of others. They caused discussion outside of the classrooms, but no interference with work and no disorder. In the circumstances, our Constitution does not permit officials of the State to deny their form of expression.”

Tinker represents the court’s acknowledgement that deviations from school uniform can express a message, or a viewpoint and those deviations may not be punished by school authorities unless there was a countervailing interest in maintaining order which was threatened by the deviation.

The idea that certain non-verbal conduct is loaded with meaning due to the nature of conduct and the context the conduct occurs in that the conduct is akin to speech has been accepted in Indian Constitutional Jurisprudence as well. In NALSA v Union of India whilst dealing with several constitutional issues regarding the transgender community, the court makes an important observation that people express their gender-identity through their mannerisms and clothes, and such expression is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the constitution (para 62). The court refers to the US cases City of Chicago v. Wilson et al and Doe v. Yunits et al as examples wherein courts stated that expression of gender-identity through choice of clothes is a key aspect of a person’s fundamental right to expression and autonomy. Having cited these cases the court concludes that:

“Principles referred to above clearly indicate that the freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) includes the freedom to express one’s chosen gender identity through varied ways and means by way of expression, speech, mannerism, clothing etc”.

Through the NALSA judgement, the court broadened the scope of Article 19(1)(a) to include non-verbal speech as well. Much like in Tinker where, in the given context, the black armbands represented anti-Vietnam fervour in the students, in the societal context, the choices a person made regarding the clothes they wore could communicate an important part of their gender-identity to society at large. Thus, the meaning of the non-verbal speech did not have to be a purely political one (that is relating to a governmental policy), it would suffice if the impugned conduct/action communicated an aspect of the person’s identity to the audience.

This idea was further articulated in the judgement of Navtej Johar v Union of India dealing with Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised homosexual sexual acts. Whilst striking it down on the anvil of privacy, autonomy and discrimination, Chief Justice Misra (along with Justice Khanwilkar) additionally struck down the section on the ground of violation of free speech (para 247). The court observed that the section caused many in the queer community to live their lives in secret, out of fear of being accosted by the police. This chilling effect amounted to a violation of the freedom of expression. Section 377 criminalised sexual acts, not any form of verbal speech of any form. However, due to the chilling effect on the queer identity caused by the legislation, it violated free speech. Thus, due to the impact of the provision causing a person to be unable to communicate an aspect of their identity to society, a freedom of expression violation had occurred. Justice Indu Malhotra in her concurring opinion cited the NALSA judgement that individuals have the right to express their gender identity in the manner they choose through mannerisms, clothes etc and extends this principle to sexual orientation as well, thus striking down the section on the anvil of free speech (para 17.1-17.2).

Further from home, in case similar to NALSA, the Malaysian Court of Appeal in Muhamad Juzaili bin Mohd Khamis v. State Government of Negeri Sembilan struck down legislation criminalising the act of cross-dressing on the grounds of it violating free speech, whilst citing Tinker and NALSA. The court held that cross-dressing involved a form of symbolic speech as the conduct communicated a part of the person’s identity to the audience. Therefore, as the conduct did not cause a public order problem, the state had no justification for criminalising it (Page 23).

Bijoe Emmanuel v Nalsa

In the famous Bijoe Emmanuel case, students who were Jehovah’s Witnesses were punished and expelled form a school due to their refusal to sing the national anthem. The SC held that compelling the students to sing the anthem would infringe on their fundamental rights and therefore would be a violation of the Constitution. The court’s judgement revolved around the fact that the opposition to the singing was based in religion. Thus, any politically motivated reason for not wishing to sing the national anthem could perhaps not use Bijoe Emmanuel for precedential value in making their case. If a  situation like Colin Kapernick  (NFL athlete who kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality in the United States) occurred in India, the Bijoe Emmanuel judgement might not be of great assistance.

However, was the nature of the source of the objection relevant in the case? Why should a decision motivated by politics to not be compelled to participate in the singing of a song, be given less protection than a decision to not sing grounded in religion? In both instances a person is being compelled to participate in an activity at risk of sanction despite their personal discomfort, abhorrence and the fact that the activity goes against their beliefs. The important fact ought not to be the nature of the source of objection but rather the fact the individual is being compelled to participate in the activity and take part in a form of expression they object to. Sincerity of beliefs can exist in political ones just as they do in cases of religious beliefs. This piece is not arguing that politics in itself is a form of a religion, instead it is being argued that the distinction is irrelevant when looking at it from a perspective of forced speech/forced expression.

Instead of going down the path of Bijoe Emmanuel wherein the religious source of objection played a central role in the Court’s analysis of freedom of expression, the proposed alternate framework would utilise an understanding of symbolic speech seen in NALSA. The alternate framework would be that, any conduct which communicates an intimate aspect of a person’s identity to society would amount to non-verbal speech (aka symbolic speech). Censorship of such symbolic speech would have to abide by the reasonable restrictions placed on free speech as listed in Article 19(2).

On an application of the proposed alternative framework in the case of the Hijab bans of Karnataka it is clear that the bans are unconstitutional. Muslim women have argued that given the marginalisation faced by Muslims in society, publicly wearing a Hijab is an act of resistance and solidarity. When a person wears a Hijab, they are communicating their religious affiliation through the piece of clothing. The Hijab symbolises that person’s Muslim identity to a viewer, it is not an unclear message as seen by the fact that a major argument against allowing students to wear the Hijab is that it is a religious symbol.

Therefore, it can be easily established that wearing the Hijab is a form of symbolic speech. One of the arguments against allowing the wearing of Hijab is that it creates a law and order situation, which is seemingly proven by the outbreaks of violence in Karnataka, thus allowing the government to justify the restriction on grounds of Article 19(2).  However, a closer analysis of the violence is required. The fact that Muslims were wearing the Hijab by itself, was not a source for violence. It was only after the enforcement of the government order, and the counter-protests, that the law-and-order situation deteriorated.

Hijabs, thus, cannot be equated to “fighting words” (i.e., speech of such nature that, itself, provokes violence and chaos). The more appropriate applicable concept here is the “heckler’s veto”, i.e. if an objector to a certain form of expression is able to cause enough chaos, the state may opt for the easier option of silencing the speaker rather than stopping the violence. The SC has clearly stated in Prakash Jha Production and Anr v Union of India and Viacom Media 18 Pvt. Limited v Union of India, that the state cannot utilise the Heckler’s veto to attempt to silence individuals. The court observed that the state has an obligation to ensure that permissible speech is provided the adequate protection required in order to ensure it is not silenced by threats of causing violence. It has been established that the Hijab is a permissible form of symbolic speech, therefore the state is obligated to protect the wearers of the Hijab.

A final argument may be made that due to the Secular nature of India, it is open for government institutions to prohibit religious attire. However, this line of argument fails to take notice of the fact that Indian secularism has consistently differed from the form of secularism practiced in European countries. The French idea of secularism of state and church being distinct, with religion being a private right with no relevance to the public sphere of the state, is distinct from Indian secularism. In France, any form of religious imagery including turbans are banned in schools, which is completely unlike India where turbans have never been banned in public institutions. Thus, Indian secularism has always seen equidistant involvement of the state with religion rather than maintaining an arm’s-length distance.

Conclusion

An argument against the proposed framework may be made that it would lead to the death of uniforms as a concept as every student would find one aspect of their identity they wished to represent through a deviation from the standard uniform. The common thread between the protests against Vietnam War through black armbands and the Hijab is that the rest of the uniform is followed. There is merely an addition made whilst the student continues to be clothed in the prescribed uniform. In the case of  R (Begum) v  Governors of Denbigh High School the House of Lords rejected the contention of a Muslim student that she ought to be able to wear a ‘Jilbab’ (Muslim full body attire) partially because the school allowed for ‘Hijabs’ and that the school had taken efforts to ensure that the uniform code was ‘Muslim-friendly’. Thus, a line of distinction can be drawn if necessary that deviations of uniform still require that the rest of the uniform be abided by.

In sum, therefore, the Karnataka High Court has an opportunity to continue the growth of a novel jurisprudence of free speech which was germinated in the NALSA decision. The High Court ought to base its ruling on broad-based grounds of free-speech rather than restricting itself to the comparatively narrower grounds of protection of essential religious practices.