Indian Army makes students strip for army exam

Patna: The Patna High Court on Tuesday sought a reply from the Defence Ministry after more than a thousand students appearing for clerical jobs in the Indian Army were made to strip to their underwear and take the exam in an open field in a bid to “prevent cheating”.


The court has fixed April 5 as the next date of hearing in the case.

The court took cognisance of the case after some 1,150 students appearing for the Army recruitment test in northern Bihar town of Muzaffarpur were forced to take off their clothes and asked to sit for the exam only in their underwear, under the open sky, on Sunday.

Reports said army officials entrusted with conducting the examinations took the extreme step to “save time” that would be wasted on frisking more than a thousand examinees who had come with the hope to join army jobs.

It is believed the visuals of last year’s matriculation examination, when guardians, relatives and close friends were seen climbing up to the walls of a multi-storeyed building in Bihar and passing on cheat-sheets to students, haunted the minds of the officials and hence they wanted to stop cheating at any cost, media reports have suggested.

“We had gone to take exam but were asked to take off our clothes. We were left only in underwear to take exam and none objected to this as well although it was beyond our dignity,” remarked a student wishing not to be quoted.

According to him, initially he thought the authorities were joking when they asked them to sit in underwear but when they hardened their postures, they realised the officials were serious about this. “The vests too,” they shouted, “as we all were left only in undergarments to cover our body”.

Many students said their answer-sheets were soiled after sweat dripped onto them in the heat.

The federal defence minister Manohar Parikar is learnt to have sought a report from the Army chief over the issue after pictures of the students in underwear and solving answer-sheets by sitting cross-legged on the ground went viral in the media. Last week, an intermediate student had come to an exam centre in Chapra only in vest and towel, irked at the rigorous body searches by the exam officials prior to entering the exam halls. Initially, the authorities were reluctant to allow him appear at the exam but later they allowed him to give his test.

Last year a scandal in the state that saw relatives scale the walls of a school exam centre to pass notes to candidates went viral and made national headlines.