ICAI to Take Stance on Cancelling CA July 2020 Exam, Opt-out Facility Extended to 7 July

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has said to the Supreme Court that it will need time to consider cancelling the CA July 2020 examination. 

Earlier, the ICAI had been sued for providing candidates with a choice to ‘opt-out’ of the CA until 30 June due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A petition had sought a directive from the Supreme Court to nullify the ‘opt-out’ option offered by the ICAI. In response, the ICAI had filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court.

The ICAI will be reaching out to states to assess the impact of the coronavirus there, in order to decide if it can hold the CA examination. It has also extended the ‘opt-out’ facility to 7 July. More than 50,000 candidates have already opted out.

Meanwhile, the lockdown has been extended to 31 July in most parts of the country. While the guidelines for the second phase of the ‘unlock’ have been shared by the central government, the restrictions in the containment zones will not be lifted.

The ICAI conducts the CA examinations in over 200 test centres in India as well as abroad. In the November 2019 examination, 87,084 students had taken part in the examination. Out of them, 30,563 passed it.