The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court’s decision to disallow a female Muslim lawyer from arguing in court because she was wearing a face veil is violative of her constitutional rights, according to legal experts that Scroll spoke with.
On November 27, advocate Syed Ainain Qadri, appearing before the High Court in a domestic violence case, was requested by Justice Rahul Bharti to remove her face veil. Qadri refused, saying that she had the right to cover her face and that the court cannot insist that she remove it.
Bharti did not allow her to appear in the case that day on the ground that the court could not verify the advocate’s identify “both as a person as well as professional”.
Lawyers that Scroll spoke with said that courts verify the identity of lawyers and other persons entering court premises by checking their identity cards, not by looking at their faces. There is also no bar on a face cover in the dress code prescribed for lawyers by the Bar Council of India rules.
What happened in the High Court
After refusing to allow Qadri to argue, Bharti had on November 27 directed the registrar general of the High Court to confirm if women advocates were legally permitted to appear with their face covered and if they could refuse a request from the court to remove it.
In the subsequent hearing in the matter, on December 6, Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi noted that the registrar general, in a report, had cited the dress code for female advocates detailed in the Bar Council of India rules.
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