Overview

• Education Minister V. Sivankutty directed St. Rita’s Public School to permit the student to wear a headscarf, with the school free to decide its colour and design.
• The Ernakulam Deputy Director’s report found “serious lapses,” calling the removal a breach of the Right to Education and fundamental religious freedom.
• The campus reopened after a two-day closure with a strong police presence following a Kerala High Court order granting protection to the school.
• The student did not attend on reopening day, with her family citing health reasons, as the minister sought an action-taken report addressing her distress by Wednesday morning.
• Earlier mediation by Congress leaders led the father to signal he would follow the school’s rules, even as the government now mandates accommodation of the headscarf.