Supreme Court denies request to postpone May CA exams

Citing the concurrent Lok Sabha elections, the Supreme Court refused to consider a plea seeking to postpone any of the May Chartered Accountancy (CA) exam papers in its order on Monday. The bench, which included Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in addition to Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, emphasized that no exams were planned by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for the days of the election—May 7 and May 13.

The court made it clear that changing the exam dates at this late stage would interfere with the elaborate preparations previously made for the exams and would result in “grave injustice” for certain pupils. The court dismissed the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) because it stressed that exam scheduling is a matter of “policy decisions.” It did, however, recognize the significance of the right to vote and the predicament faced by candidates who had to juggle voting and tests.

Notably, there are 591 exam locations and no exams are planned for the days of voting. With more over four lakh students enrolled, the bench voiced concern that any relaxation could lead to serious discrimination. Exams for Chartered Accountancy (CA) are scheduled to begin in May 2 and continue until May 17.

In particular, the request asked that tests set for May 8 and May 14, which happen to be election years in some states, be postponed. A comparable case was previously rejected by the Delhi High Court on April 8 after it was deemed to be “bereft of substance.” The ICAI’s legal representative argued that rescheduling the tests for the second week of June would cause significant disruptions to the entire process, and that every effort had been made to avoid arranging exams during election days. This argument led the court to make its conclusion.