Candidates can opt out of CA exams if they, family members suffer from Covid-19: Supreme Court

Observing that the scheme provided by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ICAI is not enough the Supreme Court Wednesday permitted candidates scheduled to appear for the upcoming CA exams to opt out if they or their family members have suffered from Covid19A threejudge bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose also made it clear that a candidate need not produce RTPCR realtime reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction test if medical certificate issued by registered medical practitioners for his family members is produced along with request for opting outldquoA candidate who has suffered Covid19 personally or any of his family members so certified by a registered medical practitioner as a result of which he is unable to appear for exam or disabled from preparing for the exam is entitled to exercise the option of opting out It will not be considered as an attempt Such candidate will be permitted to appear for the next examination for both old and new syllabusrdquo the bench saidAlso Read SC favours CA exam in July agrees to consider optout option for studentsWith regard to candidates affected by lockdown during the relevant period of exam the apex court said as per ICAI scheme such candidate will be allowed to optout and will not be treated as an attempt and such candidate will be allowed to appear in the next examinationldquoAs regards the logistical arrangements both infrastructural and human resourceswise the ICAI shall ensure that there is strict adherence to the SOP notified by the competent authority including the Disaster Management AuthorityldquoIt is also clarified if any candidate who is attempting exam gets Covid19 during exam he will be allowed to opt out and it will not be treated as an attempt They can give the exam in the next year He may be permitted to appear in backup exams as per the rulesrdquo the bench saidThe top court also said that in case of last minute change of examination centres it disapproves the suggestion of ICAI that if its in the same city the candidate will not be allowed to opt outldquoWe direct that candidate should be allowed to opt out and it will not be treated us an attempt Such candidate can appear in backup when situation is conduciverdquo it saidSenior advocate Meenakshi Arora who was appearing for one of the petitioners said that some serious issues have not been addressed in the note filed by the ICAI and it is not in line with what the apex court had observedArora referred to the issue of RTPCR report and said candidates who have to travel to different places to appear in the exam may have suffered from Covid19 earlier but he or she has not recovered fullyThe apex court was hearing a batch of pleas seeking different reliefs including an optout option for the candidates postponement of the exam and increase in number of centres this yearDuring the earlier hearing conducted through videoconferencing the bench observed there are instances where the RTPCR test may be negative but the person shows symptoms of Covid19The ICAI has recently said that optout option will be provided in case the examinee himself or herself or his family members residing in the same premises are infected with Covid19The bench had said that RTPCR report should not be the parameter and there has to be a competent authority having medical experience which can issue certificate to the candidates looking at Covid19 or Covid19 related issuesICAI had on Monday told the apex court that it is the most conducive time to hold CA exams as Covid19 spread is now at a substantially low level offering an opportune moment for chartered accountants to further their professional careerIt had said that the present Covid19 situation in the country is similar to when this court had allowed ICAI to hold examinations in November 2020 and there is no reason to believe that it will not take adequate precautionsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever