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Five-year-old boy wins right to wear turban to school in Australia

The family took their fight to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), claiming the school had breached the state’s Equal Opportunity Act by discriminating against their son on religious grounds.

Five-year-old boy wins right to wear turban to school in Australia Representational Image

New Delhi: A Sikh family has won a legal battle against a Christian school in Melbourne, which denied admission to their turban-clad five-year-old son. 

Reports in leading daily claimed that the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal(VCAT) has ruled that Melton Christian School breached the Equal Opportunity Act by denying admission to the boy named Sidhak Arora, who was wearing patka (children's turban). 

A couple of months ago, the family took their fight to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), claiming the school had breached the state’s Equal Opportunity Act by discriminating against their son on religious grounds.

However, on Tuesday, VCAT member Julie Grainger found, "MCC is a Christian school and it has an open enrollment policy which means that it accepts enrolments of students from other faiths."

“On the basis of wearing patka, they are not giving enrollment in the school. I believe students should be allowed to practice their religion and should be allowed to wear their article of faith,” Child's father Sagardeep Singh Arora had asserted earlier.