Burkinis are swimsuits that cover whole body except the face, hands and feet.
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He said he would comply with the ruling, but other local authorities, including the mayor of Sisco, in Corsica, vowed to maintain their bans.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith hailed the ruling as a “victory for common sense”.
Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to the jihadist truck attack in the resort last month in which 86 people were killed.
In a judgment expected to lead to bans being overturned in around 30 towns along the French coast, the State Council ruled the measure was a “serious and clearly illegal violation of fundamental freedoms”.
The burkini bans have prompted a row over the French principle of laïcité – secularism – amid accusations that politicians are twisting and distorting this principle for political gain, and using it to target Muslims.
But critics say the bans were feeding a racist political agenda as campaigning for next year’s French presidential elections were kicking off. “The judges of the State Council thus suspend this ban”, the court wrote in its decision Friday.
“A genius came up with #motorkini in solidarity with Muslim women banned from wearing #burkini on French beaches”, tweeted Yasmin Khan, director of women’s charity Staying Put UK.
While Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, got involved in the burkini debate, Muslim women emptied bags of sand outside the embassy in Knightsbridge and made their own make-shift beach.
However, Socialist French prime minister Manuel Valls said the debate was not over, calling the outfit a symbol of a “backwards, deadly Islamism”.
Dressed in everything from bikinis to burkinis, and even priest’s cloaks, the activists gathered in solidarity with Muslim women in France.
However, fanning right-wing sentiments, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is now preparing for another stab at presidency after losing the position in 2012, said in his first big speech while announcing his candidacy that if he is elected he will impose a national ban on burkinis in France.
According to officials, such bans are in response to growing terror concerns following a series of terror attacks in France.
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The bans have divided France’s government and society and drawn anger overseas, especially after images circulated online showing police appearing to force a Muslim woman to take off her tunic. She urged parliament to vote to ban the burkini “in order to protect women, secularism and our way of life”.
