Turkey's Constitutional Court Thursday ruled against lifting the ban on the wearing of Islamic-style headscarves at universities, reported dpa.
A majority of judges ruled as unconstitutional the reforms under which the ban would have been lifted, and which had been pushed through parliament by the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The issue of allowing students at universities to wear the Islamic head covering had been the focal point of legal proceedings against the AKP that could see the party closed down and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan banned from politics.
Staunch secularists saw the government's moves to allow the headscarf into universities as proof that the AKP seeks to ultimately introduce Shariah (Islamic) law in Turkey.
The government responded that the bans currently in place were a violation of the right to freedom of religion.