Plea has been filed in Supreme Court seeking direction to ICAI for the upcoming CA December 2021 examination. The application has requested for opt-out option for students without the mandate of RT PCR, among other things.

• Candidate has filed a plea in Supreme Court seeking direction to ICAI regarding the CA December 2021 Examination.

• Applications seeks an opt-out option for the students who are symptomatic without RT-PCR mandate.

• The application also seeks an islation room provision for students who would wish to appear for the exam, despite fever.

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, ICAI would be conducting the CA December Exams 2021 for Final, Intermediate and Foundation courses starting December 5. Ahead of the examinations, an aspirant has moved the Supreme Court, seeking ‘opt-out’ option for symptomatic students. The plea further requests no mandatory RT-PCR requirement for doing so.

The plea is filed by Sanjeev K Arora, a candidate of the CA Exam. The plea requests Supreme Court to direct ICAI to consider medical certificates from candidates instead of insisting on an RT-PCR. All such candidates may be allowed to opt out and shift to the next cycle of examination, which would be conducted in May (depending on situation.

The application reads, “Insistence on RTPCR report (within 72 hours) for the examination scheduled to be held from 05.12.2021 to 19.12.2021, is impracticable and unfeasible for students preparing to write the exams as the examination cycle lasts for 15 days and not a single day stint and it is impracticable to get RTPCR report after every 2nd exam.”

Related | ICAI CA December Admit Card 2021: Foundation, intermediate and final admit cards released on icaiexam.icai.org

The application also points out that this would be the last attempt for students applying for the old course. The notification released by ICAI prohibits students with body temperature beyond the prescribed limit from entering the examination.

With the circumstances and the fact that the notification does not mention an opt out option for CA Final Course (Old Course) students, the application has requested the apex court to ask ICAI to provide clarity. Further, the application states that the ICAI November 8, 2021 notification does not share SOPs in case of Non- Covid related fever or provide for alternative arrangements for such candidates that are willing to write the exam despite fever.

The case has not been listed as yet. The CA December 2021 examinations begin from December 5, 2021 and end on December 19, 2021. The examination for Foundation, Intermediate and Final courses would be conducted across the country.