The Supreme Court today dismissed a petition of a sacked Air Warrior asking him to be allowed to sport a beard while on duty and ruled that an air force personnel was not allowed to sport a beard during service to ensure discipline and uniformity.
The plea was filed by a dismissed IAF personnel Ansari Aftab Ahmed in 2008 who had challenged the IAF’s policy to not allow Muslim personnel to sport a beard. The cause of his dismissal is, however, unknown to the public yet.
He moved the Supreme Court asserting that keeping a beard was his fundamental right to freedom of religion and demanded equal rights as Sikhs who were in fact given permission to sport unshorn hair and turban.
The IAF defended their stand and said the Muslim religion doesn’t forbid shaving off the face of its member since all Muslims men do not sport a beard. They further claimed that the practice of sporting a beard was optional and not a compulsory norm in Islam.
Ansari was discharged from service by IAF in October 2008 while his petition was still pending before the top court. The court had issued notices to the government and the IAF in 2008.
However, the then defence minister A K Antony said the UPA government did not want Muslim personnel to suffer and said that no action should be taken against the Muslim personnel who wish to grow a beard.
The current Defence Ministry policy of ‘hair, beard and wearing turbans’ as notified in 2003, allow only those Muslim personnel to keep a beard, who had kept beard along with moustache at the time of joining/enrollment prior to January 1, 2002. Those who have grown a beard after joining service must shave it off.
