Washington (AFP) - A Washington court on Friday ordered the Marine Corps command to allow Sikh recruits to keep their beards and turbans, rejecting the Army's special forces argument that exceptions based on religion harm their cohesion.

The US Army, Navy, Air Force and Border Patrol allow Sikhs to join their ranks while respecting the rules of their religion, which forbid men to cut their hair or beards and require them to wear turbans.

But the US Marine Corps refused to grant three Sikhs who passed their draft tests last year exceptions to grow their beards and wear turbans during the 13-week basic training period, although the three could do so at other times.

The leadership justified its position that the recruits need to be "stripped of their individuality" for any framework of "psychological change" towards common sacrifice, according to the case documents.

But the three-judge Court of Appeals in Washington disputed that, saying the Marines had presented no evidence that beards and turbans affected safety or physically impeded training.

The court indicated that the Marine leadership exempted its men who suffer from skin diseases from shaving, and for women to make hairstyles and tattoos in which they are "a substantial expression of individual identity."

The decision, written by Judge Patricia Millet, added that the beard provisions date back to 1976, and from the American Revolution until the modern era, the Marines, some of whom had thick hair, did not raise any problem in this regard.

The court issued a preliminary injunction allowing two of the recruits, Milab Singh Chahal and Jaskirat Singh, to begin training while maintaining their religious appearances, while the case is fully heard by a district court.

The Court of Appeal upheld the case of the third plaintiff, Akash Singh, but pointed out that he was late for enrolment.

Giselle Clapper, a lawyer with the Sikh advocacy group The Sikh Alliance, applauded the decision, saying it meant that "faithful Sikhs who are called to serve our country can now also do so in the Marines."