Supreme Court Denies Request to Delay CA Exams Amid Lok Sabha Election 2024

The Supreme Court today  rejected a petition to postpone the CA exams held by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in view of Lok Sabha elections. The Court noted that the Chartered Accountant exams for intermediate and final level are scheduled on the 8th and the 14th May, whereas the elections are on the 7th and 13th of May 2024. The Court said that postponing the exams one day after the phase-wise polling, as suggested by the petitioners, will cause severe hardship to several students. Senior Advocate Madhavi Divan, for the petitioners, submitted that it would be difficult for students from interior regions to reach the exam centres the next day after exercising their franchise.

The bench also noted that over 4.36 lakh students have students for the exams and postponing the dates will cause grave hardship. The bench also noted that a total of total of 591 exam centres have been arranged across India. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra considered the matter. General elections are being held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha. 

The votes will be counted and the results will be declared on 4 June 2024.This is the largest-ever election in history, surpassing the 2019 Indian general election, and lasts 44 days, second only to the 1951–52 Indian general election. The incumbent prime minister Narendra Modi, who completed a second term, is running for a third consecutive term. Approximately 970 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion people are eligible to vote.[1][2][3] The legislative assembly elections in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim are to be held simultaneously with the general election, along with the by-elections for 25 constituencies in 12 legislative assemblies.