The Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected an FIR registered against four ex-office bearers and staff of a school in Damoh who were accused of forcing girl students to wear hijabs and adopt specific religious practices. By refusing the relief, a bench of justice for Himanshu Joshi on Friday said that specific allegations of coercing students through threats could not be said to be baseless and must be determined on evidence, the PTI reported.
The bench dismissed petitions filed by ex-school office bearer Shailendra Kumar Jain, Abdul Wasim Bari, teacher Anas Athar, and peon Rushtam Ali. They sought to quash the first information report (FIR).
The case comes from a Ganga Jamuna Higher Secondary School in Damoh. The government had ordered an inquiry following a poster of a Hindu girl wearing a hijab that came to light in May 2023.
After this, the district collector constituted an inquiry committee, and a case was registered on the basis of its findings under section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2021, the PTI reported.
It was also alleged that wearing a hijab and performing namaz and the Urdu language were mandatory at the school, while wearing a kalava and tilak was prohibited.
The court observed that the FIR made specific allegations that students were allegedly pressured and threatened into following a particular dress code and religious practices against their wishes.
Given the nature of the allegations, the court said the case against the petitioners could not be held to be prima facie baseless. Whether the allegations were true, it added, would have to be determined on the basis of evidence. The police have already filed a chargesheet in the matter.
