After the successful completion of SSLC (Class 10) exams in Karnataka amid the hijab row, II PUC (Class 12) exam was conducted on Friday amid tight security. Over 6.84 lakh students appeared for the examination.
Earlier, Karnataka Education Minister B.C. Nagesh has ordered to disallow students wearing hijab from writing the II PUC examination. The students wearing hijabs have been asked to remove them before entering the examination hall.
The Karnataka education department has asked for tight security in all the 1,076 examination centres across the state amid the speculation of the surfacing of the hijab controversy. The 200-metre zone surrounding the exam centre is declared a prohibited zone.
Former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy urged students not to neglect the exam. He said, “Don’t get into trouble throughout life by neglecting exams, let a bright future be your’s.”
As per sources, the four students who staged the hijab protest in Udupi Pre-University Girl’s College have boycotted the examinations and they did not even collect their hall tickets.
Earlier, stating that wearing the hijab is not an essential religious practice in Islam, the Karnataka High Court bench had dismissed a batch of petitions filed by Muslim girls studying in pre-university colleges in Udupi seeking the right to wear hijabs in classrooms.