The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday that it would not be possible to hold the CA exams in the online mode and the tests would be held at various centres as scheduled on November 21 and December 14.

The ICAI assured the apex court it would follow all the standard operating procedures (SOP) for the tests.
The court asked the ICAI to display on its official website the SOP and the other measures being taken to allay apprehensions among the students.

A bench of Justices A.M.Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna disposed of a petition filed by advocate Astha Sharma on behalf of a group of aggrieved candidates seeking the cancellation of the exams on the ground of an imminent threat to their lives on account of the pandemic.

In an earlier hearing, Sharma had argued some of the centres were located in the containment zones.
Besides, there were no separate isolation centres for students affected by the virus.

At the hearing on Wednesday, advocate Bansuri Swaraj on behalf of the students said the matter had been resolved although the ICAI had declined their plea to hold the exams online.

Senior advocate Ramji Srinivasan appearing for the ICAI told the court that the institute was not in a position to conduct the exams in the online mode or provide any isolation centres for Covid-19 affected students.

He said there were also no centres in any containment zones as averred by the candidates.

Referring to the plea for online exams, he said: “We cannot do that because the format is different and it cannot be held online.”

The counsel said the institute was strictly complying with the guidelines of the ministry of home affairs with regard to the standard operating procedures to be followed. Hence, there need not be any concern for the candidates.

Srinivasan also turned down the plea for isolation centre saying “…we cannot, however, provide isolation centres and take risk with Covid patients coming in and putting other students at risk”.