HC questions Defence Ministry after candidates appear for exam in underwear

Patna/Muzaffarpur: The Patna High Court on Tuesday directed the Ministry of Defence to reply by April 5 on reports that it had asked candidates for varied Army posts to appear for a test without clothes, other than underwear, at Muzaffarpur last Sunday to prevent cheating.

A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmad Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Saran Singh issued the order today on a petition.

On the basis of photographs appearing in some newspapers in which candidates were shown writing examination in an open ground without any clothes except underwear, lawyer Deenu Kumar had filed a PIL yesterday which the High Court had converted into a writ and gave the order today to the Ministry of Defence to reply by April 5.

Read: Bihar: Candidates made to sit in underwear in Army recruitment exam

Test was conducted for 1,159 posts at different levels in the Army at Chakkar Maidan in Muzaffarpur, about 100 km from Patna, by the Army Recruitment Office, Muzaffarpur.

Director, Recruitment at Muzaffarpur Colonel V S Godra told reporters today that the step asking candidates to sit for the examination bare bodied was taken as a preventive measure against cheating.

Because of this, no complaint of smuggling of mobile phones and chits inside the examination venue took place this time, he claimed.

"We did not insult anybody or subjected anyone to cruelty...no examinee complained, so why outsiders are making a hue and cry over the matter?" Godra wondered.

This is in contrast to photographs from Vaishali appearing last year showing people perched on window shades of a multi-storey building handing over answer chits to students appearing for exams inside.