New Delhi, May 15: Sikh students of schools run by the religion’s top body in the capital will have to abide by a “hair code” or face expulsion.

The Delhi Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee today declared it would not allow Sikh students who cut their hair to study at any of its 13 schools — some of which are highly rated even among non-Sikhs.

While Sikh boys would have to wear turbans and beards, girls would be forbidden from cutting their hair.

But the committee clarified it had “no intention” of enforcing the code on non-Sikhs studying at their schools.

The schools — known as Guru Harkishan Public Schools — have 50 per cent reservation for Sikh students.

“This is the only way to ward off attacks we are facing from both the East and the West,” committee chairman Paramjeet Singh Sarna said.

Sarna also attacked the RSS for trying to “deny Sikhs their independent identity”.

“The young generation is influenced by the West so much that children are turning away from all religions. RSS statements claiming that Sikhs are a part of their Hindu samaj are, however, attempts from the East to negate Sikhism as an independent religion,” he said.

To sociologists, the decision comes as the latest example of religious bodies trying to reassert their control over the community on the pretext of “preserving culture”.

“What hurts such bodies — across religions — the most is when someone from within defies what they consider the culture of their religion,” said Dipankar Gupta, sociologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University.