New Delhi: Karnataka has officially withdrawn a controversial February 2022 order passed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in power in the state at the time that had allowed educational institutions to ban hijabs in classrooms. Students are now allowed to wear religious and customary symbols along with prescribed uniforms in schools and colleges.A new order, issued on Wednesday, May 13, allows students to wear “limited traditional and practice-based symbols” along with their uniforms – including hijab, sacred thread, rudraksha, shivadhara and sharavastra.The order applies to government schools and colleges, aided institutions and private educational institutions under the state’s School Education Department.The government has clarified that uniforms will still remain mandatory, but these symbols can be worn as supplementary items, so long as they do not affect discipline, safety, cleanliness or identification. No student can be denied entry or forced either to wear or remove such symbols.Institutions have been instructed to implement the policy in line with constitutional values, including “equality, dignity, fraternity, secularism, scientific temper, rationality and the right to education”.The Congress government’s decision comes three years after the party came to power in the state, with School Education and Literacy Minister in the Karnataka government Madhu Bangarappa releasing the fresh order at a news conference along with Health Minister Dinesh Gundurao, and Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad. A statement on the press meet was later issued, clarifying the decisions.The first page of the note issued by the government of Karnataka after a press meet announcing the revocation of the ‘hijab ban’ on Wednesday, May 13. 2026. It refers to constitutional principles and educational policy considerations as grounds for revoking the ban.The hijab ban continued to spark controversies in the years since it was introduced, severly impacting women’s access to education. Students repeatedly faced discrimination, mental distress and exclusion from classrooms and examinations because of so-called dress-code enforcement.The issue resurfaced on May 1 during the Karnataka Common Entrance Test (KCET), when several students were reportedly asked to remove hijabs and sacred threads before entering exam halls. Education minister Gundurao had referred to the incident as “inhuman“, as per a report in Deccan Herald.Background to the banThe controversy began in Karnataka’s Udupi district after Muslim girls were stopped from attending classes for wearing hijabs in December 2021. In March 2022, the Karnataka High Court upheld the ban, saying hijab was not an essential religious practice in Islam. The Supreme Court later gave a split verdict.The issue escalated across Karnataka, leading to protests, counter-protests and temporary closure of schools and colleges by the state government. As The Wire had then reported, many Muslim students were left feeling “betrayed” by their institutions, the government and their Hindu friends and classmates who joined protests wearing saffron shawls against hijab-wearing students.The Karnataka BJP government had both enforced uniforms and banned items of clothing, which it claimed could be seen as disturbing “equality, integrity and public order”.Muslim students said the ban caused severe mental stress, disrupted studies and made them feel isolated and discriminated against. Students then filed petitions in the Karnataka High Court and approached the National Human Rights Commission, saying their fundamental rights were violated by the government’s order.The state government has now decided to withdraw Government Order No. 14, dated February 5, 2022, citing the Karnataka Education Act, 1983 and the Karnataka Educational Institutions Rules, 1995, apart from constitutional provisions.