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On Monday, the Supreme Court asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to issue fresh guidelines for the ICAI CA 2020 review.
ICAI told the SC on Friday that it would file an affidavit on the plea in law challenging its 'opt out' option for ICAI CA 2020 in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic
ICAI CA 2020 is scheduled to be held on scheduled between July 29, 2020 and August 16, 2020.
Recently, ICAI has extended the last date to submit an opt-out.
A virtual Bench of Three Judges led by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said, "ICAI counsel may take instructions and submit an amended draft notification setting out the changes."
The Supreme Court said to ICAI, "The situation is constantly changing. Even if a candidate has not chosen an opt-out option if they suddenly come under a containment zone, what are you going to do? You should treat candidates who do not appear as opt-out cases."
Ramji Srinivasan told Supreme Court, "A total of 3.46 lakh students registered for ICAI CA 2020 exams out of which only 53,000 students have taken the opt-out option"
The apex court was hearing through video-conferencing a plea which has alleged that ICAI had made an important announcement on June 15 by which it "arbitrarily decided to discriminate"
Alakh Alok Srivastava, on behalf of the 'India Wide Parents Association,' filed a plea stating that the 'opt-out' option discriminates between underprivileged groups of CA students/aspirants living in remote areas of the country or living in containment zones and thus are expected to lose one precious 'examination attempt' by choosing the 'opt-out' option in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
ICAI has notified that for students who choose this option, their attempt (May 2020) will be treated as canceled or not counted.
The petition stated that the scheme discriminates against students living in remote areas or containment zones because of restrictions that would force them to opt out, unlike their counterparts living in urban areas.
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