Bengaluru, 18 April

Some students were allegedly asked to remove their Janivaras (sacred thread worn by Brahmins) before entering the CET examination hall at centres in Bidar and Shivamogga districts.

In Bidar, a student had to return home without writing the Maths paper on Thursday morning, after the screening committee at the examination centre in Sai Spoorthi College allegedly asked him to remove the janivara before entering the exam hall, officials said.

Suchivrat Kulkarni, the student who missed the exam, said, “I was asked to remove the janivara by the college management and three people who looked like police. They told me that I will be allowed to write the paper only after that.”

The student had already written the Physics and Chemistry exams at the same centre on 16 April while wearing the janivara. But, on Thursday, during the Mathematics exam, he was stopped.

The staff allegedly told him, “What if you harm yourself using the janivara?”

“They said, proper checks were not done for other papers and they were doing it now,” Kulkarni claimed.

He was later allowed to appear for the Biology exam wearing the sacred thread.

Similarly, three students were allegedly asked to remove their janivaras at the Adichunchanagiri PU College exam centre in Shivamogga on Wednesday, police said.

However, “the staff claimed that they did not ask any students to remove their sacred thread. As per regulation, all they asked them was to remove the kashi dhara (scared thread worn around the wrist),” a senior police officer said. “But these are allegations need to be verified.”

The incidents prompted sharp criticism from officials.

“This is a violation of the religious right to conscience and the practice of religion,” Shashidhar Kosambe, a member of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights, told Salar News.