Houston (PTI): An Indian-American Sikh woman has sued the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for allegedly violating her religious freedom by prohibiting her from wearing 'Kirpan', a small ceremonial knife, to her job as a revenue agent.

Kawaljeet Kaur Tagore, who worked as a revenue agent at the Mickey Leland Federal Building in downtown Houston, sued her employer IRS in Houston federal court Tuesday with the aid of Sikh coalition and the DC-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and Houston civil rights attorney Scott Newar.

Tagore, 35, has filed the discrimination case after she was told in July 2006 that she cannot wear her Kirpan.

"There's never been any allegation that she had somehow taken the 'Kirpan' and used it as a weapon -- that's not what its purpose is," Newar said.

"It's a symbolic religious article that Sikhs have carried for centuries. It's like a Cross, it's like a Star of David, it's like any other religious ornament. It just happens to have a blade," he added.

The IRS spokeswoman Lea Crusberg, however, declined to comment on pending litigation.

In July 2006, Kawaljeet was dismissed from work as she refused to remove her Kirpan, a religious item that initiated Sikhs are required to wear at all times.

"Sikhs around the world wear their kirpans while serving as government officials. Bureaucratic short-sightedness and ignorance of the Sikh religion are no reason to put a unique ban on kirpans in Houston," said Eric Rassbach national litigation director at The Becket Fund.

The lawsuit claims that the IRS's termination of Tagore violates both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) and Title VII religious employment discrimination rules.

It alleges that the IRS banned the Kirpan as a so-called "dangerous weapon", even though the government allows hundreds of sharp knives and box cutters in the Leland Building.

The Sikh Coalition is a national civil rights organization that works to ensure that Sikhs may freely practice their faith.