New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court in a ruling has disallowed an Indian Air Force personnel to grow a beard ruling that it is not a 'compulsive requirement' of a person professing Islam.
The ruling came on four-year-old lawsuit filed by an airman Aftab Ahmed Ansari. Ansari decided to grow a beard while posted in Chandigarh and sought permission from his superior officers.
According to the IAF case file, Ansari went on 40 days' leave and came back sporting a beard, even though he had been denied permission.
Subsequently, he was asked to shave off the beard after which he moved the High Court and got a stay order in 2005.
A single-judge bench of Justice Pramod Kohli ruled that IAF personnel who do not sport a beard at the time of recruitment couldn’t grow one during service without prior permission.
The bench ruled: "Growing beards at the most can be stated to be a personal choice and the same is not a compulsive requirement of a person professing Islam. Even if it is presumed to be so, it can be regulated, restricted, if public order, morality and health so requires."
The court also vacated a stay it had given earlier to the two - Ansari and corporal Mohammed Zubair - allowing them to grow beards.
The verdict came on a directive of the Supreme Court to give a judgment on the issue within three months after a special leave petition was filed by the IAF seeking vacation of the stay given earlier.
The two petitioners have decided to move a Division Bench of the same court contesting the ruling.
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