ICAI cancels CA July 2020 examination due to COVID-19 pandemic; exam to be conducted in November

CA July 2020 exams | The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, or ICAI, has cancelled the Chartered Accountancy (CA) July-August 2020 examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Bar & Bench, ICAI informed the Supreme Court that it has “scrapped” plans to hold the exam from 29 July due to COVID-19. ICAI said that the decision has been taken in the “interest of students”. The examinations will now be conducted in November. According to a report by The Hindu, in the last week of June, the apex court had said that students can opt out of their July CA 2020 exams without running the risk of being marked as having failed in the papers they missed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The report said that around 3.46 lakh students were supposed to take the exam that was scheduled to be conducted between 29 July and 16 August. Of these, 2.89 lakh had opted in and 52,000 opted out. Earlier this month, the ICAI told the top court that there may be difficulties in conducting the CA examinations due to the rampant increase in COVID-19 cases in the country. The ICAI had from 17 to 21 June allowed the students to opt out of the examinations if they did not want to appear. However, some students objected to the move and approached the court, which asked the institute to extend it till the last date of examinations. A report by Live Mint says that a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar, on 30 June had asked ICAI to consider permitting the ‘opt out’ option for the CA examination till the last date of the exam. It adds that those who opted out were permitted to appear for the same examination in November. The report by The Hindu mentions that the court also asked the ICAI to allow students to change their exam centres “till the end”. It even asked the ICAI to follow the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for the safe conduct of the examinations.