The ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) has notified the Supreme Court that it is not feasible to conduct the upcoming CA exams in online mode as proposed by some of the applicants due to the pandemic situation as the exam assesses the analytical competence of the examinees.

The ICAI also notified that the exam is conducted for a 03-hour duration and the pattern of the exam is completely different including descriptive questions.

A bench of justices including A M Khanwilkar, Sanjiv Khanna, and Dinesh Maheshwari has directed the ICAI to issue detailed safety regulations and eliminated the petition of SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) demanded by the examinees for the imminent CA exams.

The CA exams are scheduled to be conducted from 21 November to 14 December.

During the hearing, the ICAI notified that there is no facility for isolation rooms and doctors in examination centres. There was a suggestion to conduct the exam in online mode. The authorities claimed that the exam has a dissimilar pattern and assess the analytical competence so they asked the petitioners that they must need to be reasonable with their demands.

Ramji Srinivasan, the advocate for ICAI, also clarified that it is not possible to provide petitioners with the facility for accommodation and transport.

The petitioners also claimed that no safety precautions have been set by the authorities for the upcoming examinations so far. The petitions further allege that conducting the exam offline would be an absolute violation of the guidelines issued by the central govt prohibiting the congregation of 100 persons and above at an academic institution.