The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences in Karnataka has not taken kindly to students writing name of gods and other religious symobols on examination answer sheets and has issued a circular to all of its affiliated colleges in this regard, Indian Express has reported.

The University Registrar (Evaluation) Dr M K Ramesh has issued a circular on 1 October mentioning things not to be done in the examination and which could be construed as a malpractice. First of these don’ts is to stop writing name of gods and drawing religious symbols.

“Do not write any word/sentence — starting from page 03 like names of Gods of your faith etc.,” reads the first “don’t”.

As per the daily, other “don’ts” include writing one’s name, writing PTO at the end of the page, messages irrelevant to the paper, sentences or numbers, symbols, signs, letter or word and tampering with answer books would be taken as identity revelation by the examinee and will be treated as a malpractice.

Deputy director (Pre-examination) of the university Sandhya Avadhani said, “These directions have been issued to ensure the identity of students taking an exam is not revealed to evaluators,” she said.

According to Avadhani, identity revelation by examinees is unintentional in some cases but many do it intentionally so that when they approach evaluators for increasing their marks they could identify them with those sign and symbols. She called this practice an indirect indication.

She said that such instructions are not new and the circular is just a reiteration, “From time to time we need to keep telling people because each year new students join,” said Avadhani.