Karnataka withdraws 2022 uniform order, allows hijab and other religious symbols in schools and colleges

The Karnataka government on May 13 withdrew the controversial 2022 uniform order that had effectively enabled educational institutions to restrict hijabs in classrooms, issuing fresh guidelines that allow students to wear limited religious and traditional symbols along with prescribed uniforms.

Under the revised order, students in government, aided and private schools as well as pre-university colleges will now be allowed to wear items such as hijabs or headscarves, turbans, sacred threads (janivara/janeu), rudraksha beads, shivadhara and similar customary symbols while attending classes.

The government clarified that the permitted symbols must not interfere with institutional discipline, safety, identification procedures or the functioning of educational institutions. The new rules came into immediate effect and will apply from the 2026-27 academic session.

The move formally reverses the February 5, 2022 order issued by the previous BJP government during the height of the Karnataka hijab controversy. That order had mandated strict adherence to prescribed uniforms in educational institutions and was widely interpreted as a hijab ban in schools and colleges where uniforms were compulsory.

The 2022 decision had triggered nationwide protests, legal challenges and political debate after Muslim students in Karnataka were denied entry into classrooms for wearing hijabs. The issue eventually reached the Karnataka High Court, which upheld the restrictions in March 2022, ruling that wearing the hijab was not an essential religious practice under Islam.

According to the new Karnataka government order, no student can be compelled either to wear or not wear such traditional or religious symbols. Officials said the revised guidelines were intended to balance institutional discipline with constitutional values of equality, inclusion and secularism.

The rollback is being viewed as a major policy reversal by the Congress-led Siddaramaiah government, which had earlier criticised the BJP government’s handling of the hijab issue. The Congress had promised to review the restrictions during the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections.

The latest order is also being linked to a recent controversy in Karnataka involving allegations that a student’s sacred thread was cut during an examination, an incident that triggered political outrage in the state.

The Karnataka hijab row first began in early 2022 at a government pre-university college in Udupi, where Muslim students objected to restrictions on wearing hijabs in classrooms. The dispute later spread across the state, with counter-protests by Hindu students wearing saffron scarves and growing political polarisation around the issue.

Human rights groups and education activists had previously argued that the restrictions disproportionately affected Muslim female students and contributed to dropouts and disruptions in education. Reports and RTI responses cited in later studies showed that several Muslim students either transferred colleges or discontinued studies following the controversy.

The BJP has criticised the latest decision, arguing that educational institutions should maintain a common dress code without religious distinctions. However, the Congress government has defended the move as necessary to protect students’ rights while maintaining institutional order.