Amric Singh Rathour

The lawyer for Amric Singh Rathour, a Sikh policeman who was dismissed by the New York Police Department for refusing to remove his turban and shave his beard, has said the New York Attorney General’s office will be intervening in the case against NYPD on Rathour’s behalf.

Rathour was dismissed from the force in August 2001 and has filed a case against NYPD charging it with religious discrimination. Rathour’s lawyer Ravinder Singh Bhalla told News India-Times that Avi Schick, deputy counsel to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, had met with him on June 3. “The AG’s office is very concerned with this case and that they want to get involved. Their involvement will be defined by what their own investigation reveals in addition to the city’s response,” he said.

According to Bhalla, the AG’s office can file an Amicus Submission on behalf of plaintiff Rathour. “Rathour had submitted that NYPD’s policies violated the NY State HR Law. AG Spitzer’s office had amended the HR law last year to give it wider protection. So when the case comes up for hearing this Fall, it will be the first time the amended HR law will be taken into account,” he said.

Rathour, 28, of Ozone Park, represented by the Sikh Coalition, had filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan on March 4, 2003, charging the NYPD with religious discrimination and challenging its “no turban policy.”

The complaint, which was made available at a press conference on March 4, named NYPD commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, the NYPD and the City of New York as defendants. It charges the three of them with religious discrimination, negligence, harassment/intimidation, false imprisonment/retaliation and emotional distress.

As per the complaint, Rathour had applied for the position of a Level II Traffic Enforcement Agent (TEA) officer of the NYPD in or around late 2000. Rathour’s counsel Bhalla said as part of the application process, his client had cleared the physical examination, psychological examination, civil service written examination, as well as a ‘background check.’

On June 18, 2001, Rathour was sworn in as officer of the NYPD, Bhalla said. At the ceremony, Rathour, in accordance with his religious beliefs, wore his turban and maintained his uncut beard, he added. On June 19, 2001, when Rathour arrived for his first day of training, he was told by an NYPD official that TEA officers are required to wear a hat over their head as a mandatory part of their uniform.

When Rathour objected, he was told that he may keep his uncut facial hair, but would have to forego the turban, Bhalla said. Rathour then submitted a religious accommodation request form to the NYPD’s Equal Employment Office, which, on June 28, 2001, was disapproved.

Subsequently, Rathour was granted a hearing at the Equal Employment Opportunity regarding his request for a religious accommodation, Bhalla said. “At the hearing on July 31, 2001, Rathour was told that the NYPD would not grant him an ‘exemption’ to the hat requirement. And that whatever head covering he may wear would have to be covered by a uniform hat, and that his turban would not fit under a hat. With regard to the beard, he was told that he would have to trim his beard no longer than to one millimeter from his skin,” Bhalla said. When Rathour refused to comply, he was dismissed from NYPD on Aug. 27, 2003.