Seven government schoolteachers have been suspended for allowing some girls to write their Class X board exam wearing the hijab in northern Karnataka’s Gadag district.

While five of them were invigilators, two were superintendents assigned the task of supervising two centres where the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exam was underway. The girls were allowed to wear the hijab on March 28 despite a state government order prohibiting the headscarf at all government schools and colleges.

The teachers were identified as S.M. Pattar, S.U. Hokkalad, S.S. Gujamagadi, S.G. Godke and V.N. Kivudar, while the superintendents are K.B. Bhajantri and B.S. Honaguri. They were all on exam duty at C.S. Boys’ High School and the adjoining C.S. Patil Girls’ High School in Gadag.

The deputy director of public instruction in Gadag, G.M. Basavalingappa, told reporters that they were suspended for violating the Karnataka High Court order that had upheld the state government’s ban on the hijab in state-run educational institutions.

He said the matter came to light when a local television channel reported how some Muslim girls wrote the exams wearing the hijab. The department conducted an inquiry and served the suspension orders.

An invigilator named Noor Fathima was suspended in Bangalore for refusing to follow the orders on the hijab on March 28. The district education department confirmed that she was “relieved of her duties” after she challenged the chief superintendent of Siddaganga School, an examination centre, who had asked students to remove their hijab before entering the building.

The department of education had on Saturday issued a circular making it mandatory for all candidates writing the SSLC exams to wear their prescribed uniforms minus the hijab. Private schools were allowed to take a call on the matter since the order was not binding on them.

No action has been taken against the hijab-clad students who wrote the exams, although the government had on Monday warned of disciplinary action if anyone violates the order.