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European Court Says No to Sikh
Turban
WSN Network
STRASBOURG: The
European Court of Human Rights dismissed a legal challenge last week
to the French law banning the wearing of the turban on ID document
photos, filed by United Sikhs on behalf of Shingara Mann Singh. The
decision has shocked the Sikh community globally. The Court, without
requiring
France
to respond to Shingara Singh's legal arguments, has justified
denying religious freedom on the basis of public security and
protection of public order. United Sikhs is filing cases before the
United Nations Human Rights Committee next month on behalf of
Shingara Singh and Ranjit Singh for ID photographs on their passport
and residence card, respectively.
French
regulations require motorists to appear "bareheaded and facing
forward" in their driver's licence photographs. Shingara Singh is a
53 year old Sikh from the northern
Paris suburbs,
whose replacement driver's licence was refused by the French
authorities in 2005 and again in 2006.
Shingara Singh's
London Lawyer, Stephen Grosz of Bindmans stated, "The Court's
approach is very disappointing. Whilst it recognized that requiring
a Sikh to remove his turban is an interference with his religious
rights, the Court was quite wrong to justify that removal of the
turban as necessary for identification."
3 December
2008
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