A day after a baptised Sikh candidate was asked to remove the turban and kirpan during an examination conducted by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission in Ratlam, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has urged the Central government to issue a direction to all states to ensure respect to Sikh turbans and religious symbols at examination centres.
Irked over repeated occurrence of such instances, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami on Monday said the Union government must ensure compliance of its order and take action against violators.
Expressing a strong objection to the Ratlam incident, Dhami stated that people in India were well aware of the principles and traditions of Sikhism. “It is painful to see questions being raised on Sikh traditions,” he added.
Preventing Sikhs from wearing turbans while appearing in examinations was a violation of the Constitution of India and a gesture to make Sikhs feel alienated in their own country. Although the examination staff apologised, the incident hurt the religious sentiments of Sikhs, he said.
Dhami said the SGPC would pass special resolutions in view of these incidents and would send them to the Central government for action.
Dhami said Sikh students frequently faced similar difficulties during examinations across the country, which was unacceptable.
On February 8, an Amritdhari Sikh student was allegedly prevented from appearing in an examination for wearing a kirpan, an article of Sikh faith. The incident took place in Kaanth town of Uttar Pradesh’s Muradabad district. On July 27 last year, a Sikh candidate, Gurpreet Kaur of Pheloke village in Tarn Taran, alleged that she was stopped from appearing for the Rajasthan High Court (Jodhpur) Civil Judge recruitment exam as she was wearing a kirpan. A similar discrimination was reported during the same recruitment process in Jaipur in 2024