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High Court
rules Sarika Singh cannot wear Kara till case is on
WSN Network
 LONDON:
Sarika
Singh, the 14- year-old Sikh girl excluded from her Aberdare Girls'
School in the Welsh town of Aberdare for wearing integral Sikh
symbol of Kara, cannot wear it to school till the legal tangle over
her cultural and religious rights was fully resolved, the High Court
has ruled.
Of Welsh-Indian
origin, Sarika Watkins-Singh, was excluded after she refused to
remove her kara, did not agree that it was a part of jewellery,
something that the school rules prohibit wearing, and is now due to
fight in the courts to establish a permanent right to continue
wearing it in class.
Kara is an
important symbol of Sikh culture and faith. Sarika, who is being
fully backed by her mother, 38-year-old Sanita, wants to return to
her school and continue her education pending the hearing.
On Tuesday,
Sarika's lawyers pleaded before the London's High Court saying she
be allowed to wear it on her right wrist under a long-sleeved jumper
until there was a final ruling in her application for judicial
review, which could take several months.
Helen Mountfield,
appearing for Sarika, argued that she was unfairly being made to
choose between her education and her faith. But Justice Harrison
accepted the argument of the school governors that to allow Sarika
to be made an exception to school uniform policy even for a short
period would cause disruption among the 600 girls at the school.
 Liberty,
the human rights group which has filed the challenge, claimed the
school has breached race relations and human rights laws. One
argument is also that there is a 25-year-old Law Lords' decision
which allows Sikh children to wear items representing their faith -
including turbans – to school. Sarika's Kara, once perhaps a
localized matter of school discipline, has now become a major
international affair as Sikhs everywhere are watching this legal
battle.
The judge ruled:
"Whilst I accept there will be detriment to the claimant if she is
not able to wear the Kara in the interim, it does not seem to me
that is anything like as significant as the detriment to the school
if she were allowed to wear it."
Ms Mountfield
had told the judge that Sarika was allowed to wear it for about two
years before a PE teacher asked her to take it off in April last
year. "She is 14, now approaching the age at which she is required
to choose her GCSE subjects. She cares about her education and is a
child with aspirations to have a professional career. She will
suffer harm if she cannot attend school in a way that is consistent
with her culture and religion, and is forced to choose between
something which is central to her ethnic and religious identity and
her education." The school suggested as a compromise that Sarika
could hide her Kara in the school bag. The school allows wearing of
only two forms of jewellery: a wrist watch and one pair of plain
metal stud earrings.
 In the
forthcoming High Court hearing, Sarika's lawyers plan to argue that
the school's stance violates race relations laws, the 2006 Equality
Act and the 1998 Human Rights Act. Her mother says she has the
support of several local politicians and the Sikh Federation UK. The
teenager would remove the bangle for gym classes, or wood and
metalwork, for safety reasons.
Sarika's
interest in the Sikh religion intensified after the family visited
India, including the Golden Temple in Amritsar, two years ago. Her
mother said she did not believe in putting pressure on children to
follow a certain religion, "but Sarika decided for herself that she
wanted to be a practising Sikh."
"It is a comfort
to me and a confidence booster when I am doing my exams. The reason
I am fighting for my right to wear the Kara is because I want to
stand up for the right of all the other Sikh pupils across the
country to wear their Karas in school."
6 February 2008
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