- (1.) Both these writ petitions raise common questions of law and facts. Primarily, the facts from Civil Writ Petition No. 14927 of 2005, are being noticed.
(2.) Petitioner, a Muslim by religion, joined the Air Force on 19.12.2001 as an Airman and later on promoted to the rank of Leading Aircraftsman (LAC) in August, 2004. At the time of joining his service, he was not supporting a bed. The petitioner vide his application dated 10.01.2005 informed his superiors that he intends to support a beard. His request was not acceded to by the respondents. It is alleged that on 16.06.2005, the petitioner was threatened by respondent No. 4 that he will be discharged being mentally unfit if he continues to apply for supporting a beard. The petitioner has further stated that he proceeded on 40 days annual leave w.e.f. 20.06.2005 and during leave he did not shave his beard and reported back on 01.08.2005 supporting a beard for which he was put under close arrest and issued a warning letter dated 01.08.2005 whereby he was informed that he was supporting a beard in service uniform while on duty without prior permission from the appropriate level.He was further informed that the matter has been viewed very seriously and he was asked to shave off his beard and report at 0700 hours on 02.08.2005, failing which severe disciplinary action will be taken against him. The petitioner claims to have submitted another application on 02.08.2005 seeking leave to support a beard. A certificate was issued by the Sqdn. leader that he is provisionally authorised to keep beard with effect from 01.08.2005 till finalisation of his application forwarded to the Headquarters. Thereafter, vide the impugned letter dated 05.09.2005, provisional authorisation earlier granted to the petitioner to sport a beard was withdrawn and the petitioner was asked to shave off his beard on 20.09.2005. It is this order which is the subject matter of challenge in the present writ petition. While the above writ petition was pending, ore Mohammed Zubair filed a writ petition No. 16985 of 2005 to challenge order dated 26.10.2005, Annexure P-5, asking him to shave his beard raising all the pleas and grounds of the aforesaid writ petition No 14927 of 2005, additionally challenging the policy instructions dated 24.02.2003 and 01.04.2003, Annexures P-2 and P-3, respectively.
(3.) The petitioners have challenged the aforesaid order and the policy letters referred to here-in-above invoking provisions of Article 25 of the Constitution of India and also relied upon Regulation 425(b), policy letters dated 08.05.1980 and 10.08.1982. With a view to appreciate the contentions of the petitioners, relevant extracts from the aforesaid Regulations and policy decisions are notice hereunder : "Regulation 425 of the Regulations for the Indian Air Force. 425 (a) Except as in sub-para (b), the hair of the head will be kept neatly cut and trimmed. The hair of airman under detention/sentence will be cut no shorter than is customary throughout the service except on medical advice and except where on application made by the airman, he has been permitted to keep long hair. Face will be clean shaven, whiskers and moustaches, if worn, shall be of moderate length. (b) Personnel where religion prohibits the cutting of hair or shaving off the face of its members, will be permitted to grow hair or retain beard. However, such hair/or beard will be kept clean, properly dressed and will not be removed except on medical grounds or on application duly approved." "3. It is clarified that according to Muslim Religion law, a true Muslim must keep beard. It will, therefore, be seen that the Air Force Personnel professing Muslim religion are covered by the exception under Para 425 (b) of the regulation law further specifies that the beard when kept, shall be of such length that when covered by a fist no hair shall be visible outside and that help of artificial aids for keeping the beard tidy is forbidden under Muslim religion law." "3....However, if Muslim personnel desire to suport a beard after joining service they are to submit a formal application to inform their Commanding Officer of this fact and can start growing beard from that day .......";