CA Exams to be held as planned in July, SC reserves verdict on opt-out option tomorrow

Supreme Court Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose during the hearing of pleas filed by petitioners Adv Anubha Srivastava Sahai and Sathya Nayaran Perumal made it clear that the apex court will not pass any directions to ICAI to postpone the Chartered Accountant (CA) examinations 2021 scheduled to commence in July.

However, the Supreme Court bench, in its hearing on Tuesday, agreed to consider the plea for granting opt-out option for students who cannot appear for the exam on account of COVID-19 restrictions, which vary from state to state.

Following assurance from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to the court that students appearing for the examinations will be given another opportunity if they face difficulties in appearing due to COVID-19 restrictions, the bench ruled out postponing the exams altogether and decided to consider the opt-out option on Wednesday, June 30, when the court is expected to pass an order on this aspect.

RT-PCR is no test: Bench

During the hearing that lasted for a little less than an hour, the court asked ICAI to come up with a policy where a competent authority can issue a certificate explaining why a COVID-19 positive student cannot appear for the upcoming Chartered Accountant (CA) examinations.

The Court also suggested that the RT-PCR certificate alone cannot be a deciding factor. The bench also highlighted some personal struggles faced by judges during the recovery process.

While Justice Maheshwari highlighted that "fatigue factor is horrible", Justice Khanwilkar said, "We are sharing personal experience. My after-effects lasted for after 3 weeks from recovery."

Justice Khanwilkar said, "RT-PCR positive report may be very difficult to get. Persons who recover have long-term problems and thus (maybe) unable to appear in exams. The general policy may be adopted where an authorized agency can certify that he is not able to appear in exam."

The Court later noted: "We are saying you can take certificates as a valid certificate in place of RT-PCR test so that the candidate can take the next exam. RT-PCR test is no test. Some negative ones were actually positive. Evolve a policy that one can certify why one could not appear."

Students follow proceedings online

The hearing was followed online by many students expected to appear for the CA exams this year. The controversial exams that were to be held in May were postponed due to the second wave of Covid-19 and lockdown restrictions. However, the ICAI wants to organize the examination in July which is a "window period" before the possibility of a third wave, likely to hit the country later this year.

Aditya Garg, a CA finalist who cleared his exam in November last year shared on the microblogging site, "Same thing was happening last yr. 1 thing we should understand that is things will not get better anytime soon. Same thing will happen fr Nov, May & Nov 2022. ICAI must allow unconditional optout or it will be forcing students to give exams."

Another user, Rohit Kapoor who is a chartered accountant, wrote:"A matter which could have been easily resolved, is in SC. Dialogue with students is very important and that can happen only if you think like a student. Yes exams are important but genuine concerns should be addressed. Dialogue is the solution."