The court said, "It is a serious and manifestly illegal breach of the rights"

 

PARIS, OCT. 23, 2004.

"The court has given us reason. We are now at least moving towards some kind of solution," Bikramjit Singh, an 18-year-old final year student who has been excluded from classes at the Lycee Louise Michel school in Bobogny, near Paris, for wearing a keski or an under-turban .

"We said, don't keep us in a state of limbo like this, either give us a hearing before the disciplinary council so that we can state our case or reintegrate us into classes."

A French court examining an appeal from Bikramjit and two other Sikh youths suspended from classes for wearing keskis ordered the school authorities on Friday to hold a disciplinary hearing so they can formally state their case.

"It's a totally bizarre administrative situation. They are excluded from lessons but not from the school, so they cannot enrol elsewhere. The situation must be clarified," said lawyer Felix de Belloy.

He asked the administrative court in the Paris suburb of Cergy for a ruling on whether the keski contravenes a new French law banning religious symbols in state schools.

The court gave the headmaster of a secondary school in Bobigny 15 days in which to hold a disciplinary hearing.

The court chided the school for keeping the case suspended. The refusal to allow the boys into classes without giving them the chance to argue their case before a disciplinary hearing was "a serious and manifestly illegal breach of the rights to a defence," the court said.