A Mumbai college has issued a notice banning students from wearing jeans and T-shirts on its campus, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

The notice was issued by the NG Acharya and DK Marathe College of Arts, Science and Commerce on June 27. A day earlier, the Bombay High Court dismissed a petition filed by nine female students against an earlier decision of the college to ban hijabs, burqas and niqabs, along with stoles, caps and badges on its premises.

The June 27 notice, titled “dress code and other rules”, prohibited torn jeans, T-shirts, “revealing” dresses and jerseys on campus, The Indian Express reported.

The letter said that students have to wear “formal and decent dress” on campus. “They [students] can wear a half-shirt or full-shirt and trousers,” it said, according to newspaper.

“Girls can wear any Indian or western outfit,” the college said. It also reiterated that students were not allowed to wear any dress that showed “religion or cultural” disparity, including hijabs, burqas and niqabs.

Vidyagauri Lele, the principal of the college, told The Indian Express that the administration was preparing the students for the corporate world.

“We just want students to wear decent clothes,” she said. “We have not brought in any uniform, but have asked them to wear formal Indian or western clothes. After all, they will be expected to wear those once they are employed.”

The principal also noted that the dress code was told to the students when they were seeking admission in the college. She said that multiple instances of “indecent behaviour” on campus by the students led to the decision to bring in the dress code, the newspaper reported.

Lele also told PTI that the students could come to campus wearing a hijab or a burqa and “change it in the college common room and then do their work”.

Subodh Acharya, the general secretary of the college governing council, said that the institute had not issued any new directives, PTI reported.

“The notice is not new,” Acharya said. “We are only asking students to follow the dress code which states not to wear revealing clothes. We are also not asking students to wear sarees or attire of any particular colour.”

On June 14, the nine students, who are in their second and third year of a science degree course at the college, moved the High Court against the decision to ban the wearing of hijabs, burqas and niqabs on campus.

The petitioners told the court that the move violated their fundamental rights to privacy and choice, as well as the right to practice their religion. They called the ban “arbitrary, unreasonable, bad-in-law and perverse”.

In response, the counsel for the college asked the petitioners to prove that the hijab was an essential religious practice in Islam. The counsel added that the students should focus on their studies instead of insisting on displaying religious symbols.

The court dismissed the petition and said that it was not inclined to interfere in the decision taken by the college.