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Finally, Sarika Singh wins right to
wear karra in school
WSN Bureau
 LONDON:
Sarika Singh,
the Welsh Sikh girl fighting for her right to wear the Sikh symbol
of 'karra' (steel bracelet) in school, finally won on Tuesday her
legal battle with the High Court ruling that the school’s decision
to bar her from doing so amounted to indirect racial discrimination.
She was excluded
from class for refusing to remove the karra.The Aberdare Girls'
School in south Wales argued the bracelet broke a ban onwearing
jewelry but the court said the school failed to promote equality
when they banned 14-year-old Sarika Singh from class last year.
Aberdare is 25 miles northwest of the Welsh capital, Cardiff.
The 14 year old
was the only Sikh girl in the school that does not permit pupils to
wear jewellery, except wrist watches and ear studs. Sarika had
argued that the karra was part of her religious obligations.” Her
lawyers told the court that it was as important to her to wear a
“kara” as it was to the England cricketer Monty Panesar.
“I am
overwhelmed by the outcome and it’s marvellous to know that the long
journey I’ve been on has finally come to an end. I’m so happy to
know that no-one else will go through what me and my family have
gone through. I just want to say that Iam a proud Welsh and Punjabi
Sikh girl," Sarika Singh said in a statement she read outside the
court. When she refused to remove her bracelet, Sarika was taught in
isolation from her fellow classmates for two months before being
suspended in November. She lost an appeal filed with the school's
governing body asking for an exception to the school's jewelry
policy.
Justice Stephen
Silber said in his ruling that the Kara bracelet is universally
ccepted by Sikhs as an important part of their religious observance.
“In this case there is very clear evidence it was not a piece of
jewellery but to Sarika was, and remains, one of the defining focal
symbols of being a Sikh.”
The school's
immediate response after the ruling was very positive. "Should
Sarika wish to return to school in September, in accordance with the
judgment, she will be offered help and support to reintegrate her
into the normal day-today life of the school," a statement from the
school said. Judge Stephen Silber described how for a Sikh a karra
was a sort of effectively a “handcuff to God.” He ruled that the
school was guilty of indirect discrimination under race relations
and equality laws. He said the ruling was conveyed to the school and
it had agreed to take Ms. Singh back.
Her father
Satnam Singh said: “We are very pleased with the outcome of the case
but we are extremely disappointed that we had to come to the High
court in the order to give our daughter the right to wear the ‘Kara’
in school.” Rights group
Liberty,
which campaigned for her, also welcomed the judgment. Ms. Singh also
received support from a group of MPs, who backed a petition her
family gave to
Downing Street
last month urging Prime Minister Gordon Brown to intervene. The case
comes a year after a British teen lost a legal challenge over a
school ban on wearing a chastity ring to class.
29
July, 2008
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