The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking postponement of certain papers of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) exams scheduled for May due to the Lok Sabha elections.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has not fixed the examination on election dates. The bench noted that the Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for May 7 and May 13 and no exam has been scheduled for May 6 and May 12.
The bench remarked that altering the examination date would disrupt the extensive arrangements already in place for the conduct of the examination and it could result in grave injustice for some students.
While dismissing the plea, the bench noted that the scheduling of exams pertains to policy decisions. The bench stated that weighing the importance of the right to vote they have examined the position of candidates who shall be appearing for exams and would also need to vote. It added that 591 centres are there and no exams on polling dates. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud remarked that relief at this stage would result in grave prejudice.
The CA exams are scheduled to start from May 2 and continue till May 17. The petition sought that the exams scheduled for May 8 and May 14 be postponed to other dates as elections are to be held in some states on May 7 and May 13.
Earlier on April 8, the Delhi High Court had refused to postpone the CA exams while dealing with another plea. The court had said that it was surprised that such a request was made before it and termed the petition as bereft of substance.
The counsel appearing for ICAI had contended that rescheduling the exam in the second week of June would throw the exercise into disarray and added that due care has been taken to ensure that no exams are scheduled on the dates when polling will be held.