ICAI CA May attempt merged with ICAI CA November attempt (Representational image)

The Charted Accountant (CA) July 2020 exams stand cancelled, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) informed the Supreme Court (SC) today. The ICAI had earlier postponed its May attempt to be held in July due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ICAI had also given an opt-out option to students who could not appear for the exams even in July.

The bench hearing the petition on the ICAI CA exams had then said, “The situation is continuously changing. Even if a candidate has not chosen the opt out option if they suddenly come under a containment zone, what will you do? You should treat candidates who don’t appear as opt out cases.” SC also recommended that ICAI extend the option to change the centre till the last week of June to avoid extensive travel by students. The SC had asked ICAI to issue fresh guidelines incorporating its suggestions.

In light of these developments, the ICAI had decided to merge the May (postponed till July) attempt with the November attempt. “In order to ensure the interest of its students and their well-being, the Institute has decided to cancel the May 2020 Examinations and merge the May 2020 attempt with November 2020 Examinations,” the ICAI had said in an official notice earlier.

“The students who have made an application for May 2020 Examinations will have an option to change the group(s) of their appearance and centre of Examinations at the time of making a fresh application for November 2020 Examinations, which, subject to conditions prevailing at the relevant time, will start from 1st November 2020. It is again clarified that in this scheme, the students will be free to exercise the options afresh for the groups that they intend to appear in the November 2020 examinations,” the ICAI had said in a recent notice.