Ex-pupil fails in bid to ban rule on Hong Kong girls having to wear school dresses in winter

A former Hong Kong secondary school pupil has failed in her legal bid to have a rule requiring girls to wear dresses in winter banned, with a judge saying that launching a challenge six years after graduation constituted a “significant delay”.

Mr Justice Russell Coleman of the High Court on Tuesday dismissed an application for permission to proceed with a judicial review filed by Yuen Man-hei in June against the Education Bureau and CCC Kei Chi Secondary School, which she attended from 2012 to 2018.

Yuen argued that the requirements for girls in Hong Kong schools to wear dresses or skirts in winter – exposing their calves to the cold – were “unreasonable” and involved an element of sex discrimination.

She said she had only brought the application to the court six years after graduating because of the lack of knowledge about the law among students at a young age.

Yuen, whose current occupation was not indicated, told the court she decided to “voice out for all girl students” because the rule had not changed over the years and only a minority covertly wore trousers to keep warm.

“School students would not be able to distinguish law from reasonableness due to their young age, such that the majority go with the flow unquestioningly, whereas the minority keep warm surreptitiously […] to wear long trousers,” said her statement, which Coleman cited in his judgment.

However, Coleman was not persuaded by her arguments and also questioned her capacity to bring the application to court.