The Supreme Court has declined to entertain a plea requesting the postponement of certain papers of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) exams scheduled for May due to the Lok Sabha polls. A bench consisting of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra stated that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has not set the examination dates to coincide with the election dates.
The court observed that the general elections to the Lok Sabha are slated for May 7 and 13, and no exams are scheduled for May 6 and May 12. Changing the examination date would disrupt the extensive arrangements already in place for the exam’s administration, potentially causing “grave injustice for some students.”
The scheduling of exams pertains to “policy decisions”, it said while refusing to entertain the PIL. “But weighing the importance of the right to vote we have examined the position of candidates who shall be appearing for exams and would also need to vote. 591 centres are there and no exams on polling dates. At this stage when 4 lakh plus students have enrolled, any relief at this stage would result in grave prejudice,” the CJI said.
The Chartered Accountancy (CA) exams are scheduled to start from May 2 and continue till May 17. The plea sought that the exams scheduled for May 8 and May 14 be postponed to other dates as elections are going to be held in some states on May 7 and May 13.