Kerala High Court has come down on the night curfew enforced at a women’s hostel, observing that all forms of gender-based control amount to patriarchy and that women are capable of taking care of themselves.

Justice Devan Ramachandran has, in written observations passed while considering a petition from five students against the 10pm curfew at the Kozhikode Medical College hostel, held that such decisions must be “frowned upon”.

“In the modern times, any patriarchism — even in the guise of offering protection based on gender — would have to be frowned upon because girls, as much as boys, are fully capable of taking care of themselves; and if not, it must be the endeavour of the State and the public authorities to make them so competent, rather than being locked in,” the judge wrote on Tuesday.

The next hearing is on December 7.

The five petitioners have challenged a 2019 Kerala government order that suggested a night curfew at women’s hostels at all centres of higher learning in the state.

It couldn’t be ascertained how widely the advisory has been implemented. Justice Ramachandran observed that the government order “appears to put restriction on the liability of students even to walk (on) the campus after a particular time. There can be justification for this only if compelling reasons are shown.”

He said the only argument for the curfew — presented by the medical college in its affidavit — was that the students had no need to go out after 9.30pm since all reading rooms and libraries are closed by then.

“However, there can also be situations where students would want to walk out in the nights, for other reasons, as they may deem. This has been restricted through (the government order) and I am certain, therefore, that the competent authorities must come out with the rationale in imposing the said limitation,” the court observed.

It said that while imposing limits on the movement of hostel boarders, authorities should keep in mind the University Grants Commission’s regulations “which mandate that in the guise of protection, rights of the students — especially women — cannot be inhibited, particularly that of movement”.

Women students of the college have launched an “Azadi: Break the Curfew” movement and held protests on the campus.

They have asked why the curfew does not cover the men’s hostels.

The college authorities have argued that the sole objective behind the curfew is to provide protection to the women boarders.

But the students have told the authorities that deploying adequate security personnel and installing security cameras and sufficient streetlights are a better way of providing protection.