The Kerala High Court has granted police protection to St. Rita’s Public School in Ernakulam after a hijab controversy spiralled into a mob protest, forcing the institution to shut down for two days. The CBSE-affiliated school, run by the Latin Catholic Church, faced aggressive demonstrations after it denied permission for a Muslim student to wear a hijab in violation of its uniform policy.
According to the school’s petition, the student’s father and several others stormed the campus on October 10, manhandled security staff, and raised slogans just as kindergarten children were arriving, triggering panic and chaos. The school accused local police of inaction and approached the High Court for urgent protection.
Justice N Nagaresh, hearing the plea, noted that the school had operated as a secular institution since its founding in 1998 and that all parents had signed declarations agreeing to abide by its uniform code. The Court cited the precedent in Fathima Thasneem v. State of Kerala, emphasizing that individual rights cannot override institutional discipline.
The controversy, however, has taken on a larger communal tone. The school alleged that the student’s guardians are now mobilizing other Muslim parents to join protests. The episode comes amid growing unease between Christian and Muslim communities in Kerala, just weeks after another church-Waqf Board land dispute in Munambam and last year’s prayer room demand at Nirmala College.
As Kerala once again finds itself at the crossroads of faith and institutional freedom, the St. Rita’s hijab row underlines a deeper tension between religious assertion and the autonomy of secular educational spaces.
