Justice Thomas Linden dominated within the college’s favour.
London:
An Indian-origin college principal, also known as “Britain’s strictest headmistress”, on Tuesday welcomed a UK Excessive Courtroom ruling that upheld her ban on prayer rituals after a Muslim pupil sought to legally problem it as discriminatory.
Katherine Birbalsingh, of Indo-Guyanese heritage, had informed the court docket that Michaela College – a “secular” secondary college for girls and boys in Wembley, north London – didn’t permit spiritual prayers consistent with its ethos of selling an “inclusive setting”.
My assertion relating to the decision on our ban of prayer rituals at Michaela. pic.twitter.com/88UMC5UYXq
— Katharine Birbalsingh (@Miss_Snuffy) April 16, 2024
Whereas half of the pupils on the college are Muslims, it additionally has massive numbers of Sikh, Hindu and Christian pupils.
“Because the Governing Physique is conscious, the College doesn’t present a prayer room to be used by pupils, for varied causes. These causes embrace {that a} prayer room would foster division amongst pupils, opposite to the College’s ethos, lack of accessible house and accessible workers to oversee pupils and that pupils would miss essential College actions, together with in the course of the lunch break in the event that they had been to spend time in a prayer room,” Ms Birbalsingh informed the court docket.
“Unacceptable segregation or division, opposite to the entire ethos of the college, was going down because of allowing prayer. An intimidatory environment was creating. Our strict disciplinary insurance policies, on which the ethos and nice success of (the) College is predicated, had been liable to being undermined,” she stated.
Justice Thomas Linden, in an 80-page judgment following a listening to in January, dominated within the college’s favour.
“In my judgment, the place to begin is that the College was proper to take the view that the problem was whether or not to allow and facilitate ritual prayer indoors: in impact, to reverse its longstanding coverage of not offering a prayer room,” it reads.
“She (the unnamed pupil) knew that the College is secular, and her personal proof is that her mom wished her to go there as a result of it was identified to be strict… Her proof has focussed on her preferences and what she supposes the place can be elsewhere,” it notes.
In an announcement following the ruling, Birbalsingh stated it was a “victory for all colleges” and of the “sturdy but respectful secularism” rules on which the college she based in 2014 is run.
“A college must be free to do what is correct for the pupils it serves. The court docket’s determination is, subsequently, a victory for all colleges. Colleges shouldn’t be compelled by one baby and her mom to alter its strategy just because they’ve determined they do not like one thing on the college,” she stated.
The headteacher acquired the backing of the UK authorities, with Schooling Secretary Gillian Keegan taking to social media to state: “I’ve all the time been clear that headteachers are finest positioned to make choices of their college. Michaela is an impressive college, and I hope this judgement provides all college leaders the boldness to make the proper choices for his or her pupils.”
The Excessive Courtroom in London discovered that the prayer ritual ban was lawful beneath Article 9 of the European Conference on Human Rights (ECHR) and Part 19 of the Equality Act 2010. The Muslim pupil, who can’t be named for authorized causes, had argued that the college’s ban “uniquely” affected her religion as a result of its ritualised nature. She has since stated that whereas she misplaced, she felt she did the proper factor and now needs to deal with her research.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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