NEW DELHI - Indian women were subjected to "virginity tests" in the 1970s before being allowed entry into Britain, reported the local daily The Times of India electronic edition on Tuesday.

Although the charge was denied by then British Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1979 to then Indian prime minister Morarji Desai, these and other details have emerged from declassified British home ministry files, said the newspaper.

The tests, to check whether Indian women claiming to be brides or fiances of British subjects were indeed so, took place at the British High Commission and consulate in New Delhi and Mumbai, said the newspaper.

The home ministry papers said entry clearance officers "sought medical opinion on the marital status of some female applicants", according to the report.

British foreign ministry officials are said to have confided to the British newspaper Guardian that there were 73 cases in Delhi and nine in Mumbai.

The Indian government angrily protested against the "humiliating and obscene" practice.

The British Border Agency, which now deals with immigration issues, stated, "these practices occurred 30 years ago and were clearly wrong", said the report.

In the late 1970s, the women were subjected to intimate examinations by immigration officers, as the records put it, to "check their marital status".    

The British government assumed that a bride or a fiance in India would be a virgin if it transpired an applicant was not a virgin, immigration could be refused.