photo supplied
AMN / MELBOURNE
Sidhak, a five-year-old Sikh boy in Australia won a case against a school that prohibited him of wearing a Patka, or children’s turban, a traditional headwear.
A Victorian tribunal has ruled that the school in Melbourne unlawfully discriminated against a young Sikh boy, when it refused to accept him as a student if he wore his traditional headwear.
In keeping with his family’s religion, five-year-old Sidhak Singh Arora has never cut his hair and wears a traditional patka on his head.
His parents applied for his admission at Melton Christian College in 2016, but the school told them its uniform policy required boys to have short hair and not wear headwear from a non-Christian faith.
On Tuesday the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruled in the parents’ favour who approached it against the school, Tribunal found that the school had discriminated against Sidhak.
Sagardeep Singh Arora and his wife Anureet had told tribunal that Melton Christian College breached the Equal Opportunity Act by not allowing their son Sidhak to wear a patka, or children’s turban, when they tried to enrol him in 2016.
“Whilst MCC is a Christian school, it has an open enrolment policy which means that it accepts enrolments of students from other faiths,” VCAT member Julie Grainger found.
“A little over 50 per cent of the school community does not identify explicitly as Christian and many families at the school have no religious beliefs.
“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.”
The school could have amended its uniform policy to allow Sidhak to wear a turban in school colours, the VCAT finding added.
Ms Grainger ordered the parents and the school to sit down and negotiate an agreement on what orders can be made to resolve the situation.
The Aroras previously said they still wanted Sidhak to attend the school, as it is where his cousins study, and it is close to their home.
Sidhak’s father, Sagardeep Singh Arora, had alleged the school’s decision disadvantaged his son on the basis of his religious beliefs.
Principal David Gleeson said the school would respect the tribunal’s ruling.
“The school has always endeavoured to comply with legislation in relation to discrimination,” he said.
“We had thought that we were acting in accordance with the law, and so we respect the finding of VCAT.
