CA Exams : Supreme Court Rejects Prayers For Waiver Of Articleship, Vaccine Priority For Candidates

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down the requests of Petitioners pertaining to waiver of submission of articleship and priority vaccination of CA candidates during the hearing of the three petitions related to the CA exams.A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose was hearing three petitions related to CA exams.The bench asked the counsel of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to submit a brief note today itself on the following points :(i) Alternate options for the condition of RT-PCR certificate.(ii) Ensuring that exam centres are not used for other purposes like marriage function and that their exclusivity is maintained.(iii) Examiners who are going to conduct exam should have RTPCR tests done before the date of exams.(iv) In case of last minute change of exam centre, option to select alternate exam centre or opting out should be given to the candidate.(v) If during the middle of exam a candidate suffers Covid, he should be permitted to take the remaining papers in the next cycle.However, the Court refused to entertain some other requests which were put forth by the Petitioners. Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora requested the Bench as to whether submission of the articleship could be done away with in exceptional cases. She submitted that there would be candidates who may pass the exam, but would be unable to submit the articleship, and whether certain concessions could be granted to them on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. This request was instantly turned down by the Bench – "You are asking for too much. We cannot do this. This is a part of the exam and we cannot change it". Advocate Shashibhushan Adgaonkar, on the other hand, requested the Bench as to whether priority vaccination could be accorded to CA candidates on the basis of their admit cards. This request was also rejected by the Court who remarked that "classes after classes cannot be created. That issue is related to a matter before another Court. We are only concerned with the matter related to the examination. You are going beyond that". The Court further, in response to Adgaonkar's request as to how students would reach examination centres, noted that transportation and movement were logistical issues, and a representation could be presented to the competent authority to accept or reject. Adgaonkar lastly requested that the ICAI was responsible for ensuring that the staff was tested, however, the Court was not inclined to entertain the same. The Court observed, "You are not obliging the institute by appearing in the exam. It is voluntary. You can't make the institute responsible for your problems and issues."Later during the day, the ICAI submitted a note stating that the 'opt out' option can be extended to all COVID affected candidates. Read more about the note submitted by ICAI here.The Court will hear the case tomorrow.CA Exam: Opt-Out Option Will Be Extended To All Syllabus COVID Affected Candidates And Those Who Are Unable To Appear Because Of COVID After Effects - ICAI To SC

CA Exams : Supreme Court Rejects Prayers For Waiver Of Articleship, Vaccine Priority For Candidates

Radhika Roy

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