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In a letter dated 21st June, 2021 addressed to Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, as many as 6,000 students who are yet to appear in the upcoming Chartered Accountancy (CA) examinations came together seeking suo-motu cognisance of the issues flagged by them including absence of opt-out option for all students, extension of old course attempt and other reliefs.
The students prayed for the following relief in the letter:
1) Suo-moto cognizance of our application along with the PIL having diary No. 13269 of 2021 for CA students issue and for urgent listing of PIL;
2) Direct ICAI to provide an Opt-Out option to the students who are unable to appear for the exams due to COVID-19.
3) Direct ICAI to increase the number of attempts for Old Course Students.
4) Direct ICAI to conduct an additional examination attempt for students who cannot appear for the upcoming exams due to COVID-19.
It must be noted that the letter came days after a plea seeking to highlight similar concerns was filed in the Supreme Court.
The students raised concern over the fact that their 15 day long offline examination is scheduled to begin from 5th of July and approximately 3 lakh students are going to appear in these exams from all over India and stated that, “the prevailing 2nd wave of COVID-19 virus has made a drastic impact on the lives of Citizens of India and it has impacted each and every one in some or the other way. With over 3 lakh 85 thousand lives lost until now, many of the CA students lost their family members during these past few months.”
The following three concerns were raised in the letter:
“Majority of the students that will be appearing for these exams belong to the age group of 18-45 and have not been fully vaccinated yet, this puts the students at a high risk of getting sick during the conduct of the exams. Also, if we have a look at the effects of 2nd wave of COVID-19, it has been more drastic than the 1st Wave of COVID-19 especially on the young population of the country, yet the relief of Opt Out Option that was provided to the students who appeared for the exams during the 1 st Wave of COVID-19 has not been extended to the students who will be appearing for the exams during this wave, making the institute very biased and unjust towards the students.”
“The Institute has been currently running two courses simultaneously namely Old Course and New Course, both the courses have a vast difference if we compare the syllabus. Further, this examination attempt of July 2021 is the last attempt for the students of Old Course to clear their exams and if they are unable to appear for the exams this time, they will be forcefully shifted to the new course and will have to study the syllabus all over again.”
“recently while deciding the case of cancellation of CBSE exams, during the course of arguments, when CBSE wanted to conduct the exams for its students, the Hon’ble Supreme Court asked for a proper justification from CBSE to depart from its decision to cancel the exams during the previous year since the conditions have worsened now as compared to the last year. Applying the same principle in this case it is most humbly requested that an additional attempt should also be provided to the CA students of July 2021 as it was provided to the CA students who appeared for the exams in November 2020 attempt.”
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