The professionals who have signed the letter underlined the public humiliation of Muslim students and staff who were coerced to unveil on the streets to enter educational institutions. These incidents are the direct result of their implementation of the interim order, it says.

The negation of the agency of Muslim women has left the legal community infuriated as the letter reads: “This disrobing of Muslim girls and women in public view is inhuman, derogatory and an affront to the Constitution and amounts to the public humiliation of the entire community. We hang our heads in shame as having failed in protecting their basic right to life with dignity.”

Referencing to the Kerala High Court judgment in support of hijab, the letter says, “The issue at stake here pertain not only to the rights recognised in Article 25 but also more foundationally to the Fundamental Rights of the students under the golden triangle of Articles 14, 19 and 21, read with the specific protection against discrimination in Article 15.”

Furthermore, the letter says the denial of education merely on the grounds of wearing a Hijab is an unreasonable and disproportionate restriction on their rights.

The legal experts said in the letter “the imposition of an absolute uniformity contrary to the autonomy, privacy and dignity of Muslim women is unconstitutional. By virtue of this women have the right to choose to wear hijab, and equally, to choose against the imposition of hijab.”

The letter said the hijab ban is part of the larger Hindutva agenda against Muslims in Karnataka and the nation.

It must be remembered that the background within which these educational institutions have denied entry to girls wearing hijabs is one of increasing Islamophobia and violence against Muslims, including open calls for genocide, social and economic boycotts, and attacks against inter-faith couples,” it says.

Names of some signatories of the letter as follows:

Anjana Prakash (Ex High Court judge),
Amar Saran (Ex High Court judge),
C S Dwarakanath (Ex-Chairperson, Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission),
Sanjay Parikh (Senior Advocate),
Mihir Desai (Senior Advocate),
Ashok Agarwal (Senior Advocate),
Gayatri Singh (Senior Advocate),
Pratiksha Baxi (Professor and Author),
Vrinda Grover (Supreme Court Lawyer),
Saumya Uma (Professor),
Meera Sanghamitra (Activist and law graduate),
Poornima Hatti (Partner, Samvad Partners ),
Shahrukh Alam (Supreme Court Lawyer),
Arundhati Katju (Supreme Court Advocate),
D Geetha (Labour Lawyer, Chennai),
Muralidhara (Senior labour Lawyer),
Arvind Narrain (Lawyer and Author),
Jhuma Sen (Professor and Legal Academic), and
Clifton D’Rozario (National Convener, AILAJ).