The Supreme Court of India, in a hearing this week, has asked the petitioners (seeking an SOP to be adopted for the CA exams 2020) to sort out differences with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
The petitioners have claimed that the ICAI has not taken appropriate measures to conduct the ICAI CA exams 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, which are scheduled to commence from 21st November 2020. Replying to this claim on behalf of ICAI, Senior Advocate Ramji Srinivasasn, said that a notice has been circulated precisely answering all the points raised by the petitioners. However, Advocate Bansuri Swaraj, on behalf of the petitioners, retorted that “some issues still remain” to be solved and that they have filed a notice in response to the ICAI note.
The Bench of Justices which included the likes of AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna came to a conclusion that the plea had no question of law, and was an issue of logistics.
The Supreme court Jury told the petitioners counsel, “Please sort out your differences with Mr.Srinivasan. These don’t have questions of law but are dealing with logistics. List day after tomorrow after you have discussed with Mr. Srinivasan. He is very resourceful”.
Earlier, in June, a PIL had been issued before the Supreme Court targeting the ICAI’s notification of an “opt-out” option for CA aspirants. Now, the plea says that the ICAI’s officials have not taken ideal measures regarding the safety of the aspirants amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A massive number of candidates are expected to appear for the November edition of the ICAI CA exams 2020. This is because of the fact that ICAI CA May exams were cancelled. Thus, the plea calls for safety guidelines for the coronavirus symptomatic candidates and wants them to be given equal facilities like other aspirants. Petitioners have asked the governing body of the exam to provide isolation rooms for the symptomatic candidates. They also said that ICAI must provide better accommodation facilities, logistics and additional exam centres to the aspirants.
