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To,
The President
The Institute Of Chartered Accountants of India
New Delhi-110001

Subject; Reconsider your decision to go ahead with the Mid-year 2020 Exams from 29th of July.

Dear Sir,

Every year our Institute conducts the examinations twice in a year. We conduct the first examinations in the first week of May & the Second one from the first week of November. We are conducting such examinations since long.

This year, our nation is facing an extraordinary situation and it requires extraordinary resolutions to face a pandemic COVID- 19. We have already decided in the interest of the well-being of students and rescheduled our exams to be held from 29th July 2020 to 16th August 2020.

This postponement was very much required but still the clouds of the Pandemic are there and we are really taking the decisions of the well-being of students, we should revisit our decision to go ahead with the July- August 2020 examination. You are requested to consider the following keeping in mind the possibility of the exposure of Corona to our lacks of students, feelings of the parents and as a whole for the nation where our decision may trigger some of the after-effects like Delhi religious gathering problem, Migration problem, Administrative lapse and so on. Our Institute should not be a part of any such decision that may be harmful to students as well as to the Nation.

1. The present situation and the future of the Covid-19 cannot be predicted. We can only make sensible decisions at this juncture. The Government of India is also doing the same and yesterday and guidelines for Unlock 1 were issued by The Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India.

2. This is to inform you that the said Unlock -1 has not provided any dates for the opening of educational institutions, schools, coaching Institute and simply deferred the decision on Phase 2 of the Unlock in July 2020. You are requested to reconsider your decision in the above reference that our Institute is dependent on the school premises for conducting our examinations. Further, there are numerous rights in the hand s of state Governments, Local Governments and district administration to place their restrictions on the travel of the people and to grant permission for conduct of any activity at their localised area. For your reference, a clause as provided in the notification is as follows. “Phase II Schools, colleges, educational/ training/ coaching institutions etc., will be opened after consultations with States and UTs. State Governments/ UT administrations are being advised to hold consultations at the institution level with parents and other stakeholders. Based on the feedback, a decision on the re-opening of these institutions will be taken in July 2020. MoH FW will prepare SOP for these institutions. Further, The Home Secretary in his letter to all the Chief Secretaries of the state and the administrators have specifically mentioned monitoring the clause related to the opening of schools, colleges and Educations Institution.

3. As per information available as given by the reputed news agencies with experts opinion that coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases are projected to rise through June and July, enforcing the use of masks and social distancing norms and isolating everyone with cough and fever is the only protection against infection. Community participation in the enforcement of masks, self-quarantine and isolation of everyone with symptoms of Covid-19 even without testing is the way forward.

4. We are having limited Centres across India and fewer centres at Outside India. The students are from the various parts of the country and spread over to the villages, towns & municipalities. Our student has to travel for exams days to the nearest cities. They may have to travel the cities by crossing state borders. At present, there is a mechanism of Quarantine of the people crossing the sate boundaries. Further student stays with their relatives and uses local transport. Is it possible in the present scenario to visit any relative home to write the papers?

5. The Unlock -1 has opened up the Unrestricted Movement of Persons and Goods and marked that there will not be any restriction on inter-State and intra-State movement of persons and goods and no separate permission/ approval/ e-permit would be required for such movements. However, if a State/ UT, based on reasons of public health and its assessment of the situation propose to regulate the movement of persons, it would give wide publicity in advance regarding the restrictions to be placed on such movement, and the related procedures to be followed.

6. The increasing number of COVID-19 patients also warrant rethinking a decision to go ahead with the exams. Today, with the highest single-day spike of 7,964 cases, India’s Covid-19 tally crosses 1.73 lakh. Neither this figure neither is good nor can be ignored. There will a surge of disease Covid-19 in the coming months so why are we ignoring the writing on the wall.

7. With the Unlock -1, increasing mobility and more cases will be identified which calls for an urgent consideration at your part. Don’t rely on the Government move of unlocking, it is forced and accommodative because of lockdown fatigue, people fed up and don’t seem to be bothered about the infection spreading. The numbers will spike. The concept of Dekha Jayega can apply to one Individual mind but certainly, it should not be routed through a prestige institution like ours.

8. At a social place, the students, invigilators will be requiring to have a mask on their faces. The masks are also having their medical complications and wearing a mask for a time of three hours will affect the mental and physical stage. It’s certainly, not an easy job to wear a mask and to write for the exams for many hours.

9. Your attention is drawn towards the AIIMS director Dr Galleria. As per him’ “ With most modelling studies saying the pandemic will peak in India in late July or mid-August, protection measures must be closely followed for protection. “I think it’ll (pandemic peak) probably be a little earlier, I would say July, but most of the mathematical predictors have pushed it to August,” Further such views are subject to many permutations and combination of many factors such as individuals immunity or population infected, asymptomatic transmission, and other unknowns human behaviour.

10. The Institute, as well as the schools providing the examination facilities are requested to go through the clause by clause provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005 having penal provisions to attract irresponsible conduct.

11. The November Examination will be in schedule and it will be quiet impossible to declare the results by that the time of Registration/ Application forms for November 2020 exams. In any case, a distance between August Exam and November exam will be very short and will only add stress for the students.

12. We must concentrate on the health and safety of our students and affiliated Schools around the Country and should look. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) the outbreak remains a very fluid situation, and please be assured that we are monitoring the effects on health, safety, and travel mobility.

13. I request you to take decisions prioritizing the health and safety of everyone fairer and equitable. At least a thousand members will also take an active part in conducting such an examination. It is prayed to merge the May 2020 exam with November exams and initiate the remedial measures of providing options of students to their chosen groups etc. Further in a stressful and trying situation, and I look forward to your understanding to make decisions in a timely and well-informed manner.

Thanking you in anticipation,

CA Amresh Vashisht, FCA
M- 9837515432

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are for information purposes only and does not constitute an advice or a legal opinion and are personal views of the author. It is based upon relevant law and/or facts available at that point of time and prepared with due accuracy & reliability. Readers are requested to check and refer relevant provisions of statute, latest judicial pronouncements, circulars, clarifications etc before acting on the basis of the above write up.  The possibility of other views on the subject matter cannot be ruled out. By the use of the said information, you agree that Author / TaxGuru is not responsible or liable in any manner for the authenticity, accuracy, completeness, errors or any kind of omissions in this piece of information for any action taken thereof. This is not any kind of advertisement or solicitation of work by a professional.

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Author was Member of ICAI- Capacity Building Committee 2010-11 and ICAI- Committee for Direct Taxes 2011-12 and can be reached at email amresh_vashisht@yahoo.com or on phone Phone: 0 1 2 1-2 6 6 1 9 4 6. Cell: 9 8 3 7 5 1 5 4 3 2 having office at 1 1 5, Chappel Street, Meerut Cantt, UP, INDIA) View Full Profile

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131 Comments

  1. Ishika Mandal says:

    Perfect. I completely agree with your decision. All the possible consequences have been spoken about and ofc a life is greater than anything. A one year down can be accepted than a complete loss of life. Corona pandemic is just a bad phase of life and once it is crossed, everything will be back to normal. As we all know that patience and hardwork are the keys to success,when we already waited for so many months, I think a few months time will fly quite smoothly. Moreover, students have already completed their portion, so in this extra period of lockdown, students can get back to their hobbies, learn new things that interest them, etc and eventually can get back to their studies. There’s always a positive side to everything. Let’s hope for the best and not hurry for anything at all. 🙂

  2. Shubham says:

    I totally Agree with the above article.
    To all those who are disagreeing this article kindly note:
    The Invigilator, college/school staff, students, police who will be maintaining choas outside the school/college, the person with whom you will be travelling with(if taking public transport facilities).You all should give the guarantee of their safety and no single person will be infected by virus. And if so by the bad luck anyone gets infected, who should be responsible the ICAI or students who are forcing the ICAI to conduct exam in this pandemic situation?
    Even I have been preparing hard for the exams, but your dedication, hardwork,perseverance on individual basis is nothing before ur and other people’s life. I think u all have didn’t experienced the pain of losing ur closed ones.

  3. Ashina says:

    Strongly agree with you sir. Am an ipcc student already cleared 1st group, hardly preparing for group 2 in old syllabus and now staying in bahrain. Here didn’t have exam center and choosen center in India. Remember, institute said that may 2020 is the last chance for ipcc old syllabus and don’t know any possibility to extend it to november. Due to the worst situation around and considering the risk of travelling in flight with kids sadly decided to skip this chance. But, still believe in ICAI Due to the circumstances, institute may extend chance for ipcc old scheme students to november. By reading your letter it gives a hope…

  4. manthan says:

    I agree with the petition , exams should be postpond.
    Please understand the situation as we dont deny ICAI not taking proper care butin case any of our family member gets covid , that student also wont be able to give exam and in case just under pressure that person choses to appear for exam it may even risk life of other student as high chaces of that student also being positive.Also at exam centre people may have high tempretuire due to tension or normal viral and may not be covid positive will that person be allowed in exam centre and how will u conclude weather its exam fever or covid just by checking temp.Also in case if temp is high and person is denied entering exam centre and that person test negative , who will be responisble for such peoples careers?

  5. Sonu Bansal says:

    I’m totally disagree with this decision sir. It will affect the career of students and due to this effective studies of may 20 students will be destroyed. It’s better icai conduct exam in July for may attempt and extend the period for Nov 20 students to December

  6. Saniya Jain says:

    I strongly agre..no attempt or career is more important than one’s life..you sometimes may be feeling left out or held down but there are many people around you who love you and want you to be safe…Life doesn’t return once it’s gone..

  7. Mayur says:

    I absolutely agree with this petition. Thank you Sir for writing this. I humbly request Our esteemed ICAI to cancel this exams and conduct it in Nov,2020 for public interest and nation interest in large

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