New Delhi, Sep 11 - The Supreme Court Friday suspended a Madhya Pradesh-based Christian school's order expelling a Muslim student for sporting a beard.

A bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice G.S. Singhvi asked the unaided minority institution of one community to allow the schooling of the student from another minority community with it till a decision by the court on the boy's lawsuit.

The bench ordered restoration of Mohammed Salim's admission in the Nirmala Convent at Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh observing that the school's act of expelling the student was prima facie 'ridiculous'.

'So you have been dismissed merely because you have a beard,' the bench asked Salim's counsel B.A. Khan and added, 'So no Sikh student can sport a beard?

'Tomorrow they may say no to admission if you are not fair complexioned,' said the bench, adding 'it's ridiculous.'

The bench also issued notice to school authorities and the state government on Salim's lawsuit, which sought scrapping of his school's anti-beards rule contending that it impinges upon his religious faith.