Geoffrey Bindman reviews an old case that has recently become topical
This year is the 25th anniversary of the decision of the House of Lords in Mandla v Dowell-Lee [1983] 1 All ER 1062, in which a Sikh schoolboy was refused admission to a private preparatory school because he would not remove the turban. The Lords reversed a decision of the Court of Appeal and held that Sikhs were entitled to the protection of the Race Relations Act 1976 (RRA 1976).
This judgment was recently commemorated at the annual conference of the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association in the presence of the boy, Gurinder and his father, Sewa Singh Mandla. Fortunately, Gurinder suffered no lasting ill-effects: another school was quickly found for him where there was no objection to his traditional headdress. Now in his thirties, he is a partner in the solicitors' firm founded by his father in .
RRA 1976 prohibits discrimination on grounds of colour, race or ethnic or national origins in education,
