An Australian court on Tuesday ruled in favour of a Sikh family, holding a school in Melbourne guilty of discrimination against a five-year-old boy for refusing him admission because he wore a turban, The Australian reported. The boy’s parents had approached the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in January, alleging discrimination against their religious beliefs.
The tribunal said that the school has an open enrolment policy, which means that it accepts students belonging to all faiths. “It is not reasonable to accept enrolment applications from students from non-Christian faiths only on the condition that they do not look like they practice a non-Christian religion,” it ruled.
Sagardeep Singh Arora and his wife Anureet had tried to enrol their son Sidhak at the Melton Christian College in Melbourne in 2016. But the institute had maintained that the school would not allow any garment that is not part of the uniform.
The tribunal suggested amending the uniform policy to allow Sidhak to wear a turban in school colours. It also asked the parents and school authorities to come to an agreement on how to resolve the matter.
The school’s uniform policy violates a landmark Australian ruling from 2008 – a private school in Brisbane had to revoke its uniform regulation after it had forced a Sikh boy to cut his hair and stop wearing his turban.
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