CA Exams 2021: Supreme Court To Hear On Monday Plea Seeking Opt-Out Option, More Exam Centres, Postponement If Adherence To Covid Protocols Not Possible

Supreme Court will on Monday hear the plea filed seeking directions for an "Opt-Out" option to aspirants of the upcoming CA exams 2021, more Exam Centres and postponement of exam if adherence to Covid Protocols is not possible.

A three-judge Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Aniruddha Bose will hear the plea filed by Child Right Activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai on June 28th 2021 at 10:30 am.

The present plea has sought directions to provide an "Opt Out" option to all the aspirants going to appear in the upcoming CA exams 2021 scheduled to start from 5th July 2021, willing to opt out before and during the exam, with a carry forward of all benefits.

The plea has also sought an extra chance to candidates appearing for the intermediate and final exams under the old syllabus.

The petitioner has sought directions for increasing the number of Examination Centres for CA Exams so as to ensure that at least one Examination Centre is kept in every District of India and not more than 50 students are allotted one Centre.

Further directions have been sought to have stand- by Examination Centre for those Centres which are likely to go into containment zone during the Examination.

The Petitioner has also sought formulation and implementation of specific MHA guidelines for CA Examinations, free medical treatment to students infected during examination, conducting examinations in a staggered manner and free vaccination for all the students/candidates and other staff , invigilators amongst various other welfare measures.

As an alternative relief, the petitioner has sought directions to ICAI to postpone the Examination to any later time till the Covid19 crisis normalises if adherence to the COVID-19 safety measures, vaccination of all the students, staff and invigilators is not possible.

The petitioner has also sought directions for free transportation and accommodation for those aspirants who are not living in close proximity of their respective Examination Centres to protect them from strong likelihood of COVID-19 infection.

The petitioner has also urged the Court to issue directions to treat the e-Admit Cards to be issued to the captioned students, as E-passes for free movement of such students in containment or red zones during examinations.

Further, directions have been sought to ICAI to declare the results with a specific time line at least 7 days before the commencement of next exam/next cycle.

It may be noted that over 6,000 Chartered Accountancy aspirants also recently wrote to CJI NV Ramana seeking directions to ICAI to provide an Opt-Out option to the students who are unable to appear for the exams due to COVID-19, increase the number of attempts for Old Course Students and conduct an additional examination attempt for students who are unable to appear.

The letter had urged the CJI to take suo-moto cognisance of the matter, club their application with the present PIL and list the matter under extremely urgent category as the exams are going to begin from 5th July and admit cards are to be released soon.

[ Anubha Shrivastava Sahai vs Union of India and Ors]