It would not behove the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to the status enshrined in the Constitution of India to impose a penalty of delaying enrolment by two years on a student who had studied and completed multiple courses while pursuing CA Articleship by diligently taking prior permissions from the institute, said the High Court of Karnataka.
“It is rather surprising that the ICAI wants to stifle the career of a student, who has pursued multiple courses and gained such acumen to practice as a Chartered Accountant (CA). It would be helpful to the ICAI, and society, if a student has extra acumen, than the chartered accountantship alone,” the Court observed.
“I deem it appropriate to bend the arc of justice for a student and direct grant of membership of the Institute to her without brooking any further delay,” Justice M. Nagaprasanna said in his order of allowing a petition filed by 23-year-old Nikkitha K.J of Bengaluru.
Case background
The petitioner, after completing CA Intermediate, Company Secretaries (CS) Executive and Certified Management Accountant (CMA) Intermediate courses by June 2018, commenced CA Articleship. She had simultaneously joined a B.Com degree programme in an evening college by taking prior permission from the ICAI.
After completion of B.Com course, she had in 2020 got permission from ICAI to pursue CMA Final along with the Articleship. Post completion of the CMA Final in December 2020, she got permission from ICAI in March 2021 to pursue CS Professional, which she completed in July 2021.
Later, she qualified in the CA Finals and applied for enrolment as CA in February 2023. For the surprise and shock of the petitioner, the ICAI rejected her application stating that she had ‘pursued multiple courses in violation of the Regulation 65 of the CA Regulations and imposed a fine of ₹10,000 and delayed her enrolment as CA by two years as per the Regulation”.
However, the HC found fault with ICAI’s conduct by pointing out that the petitioner had “diligently sought and secured permissions for every extra course and now the ICAI wants to tinker with the permission granted by itself.”
Jeopardising career
Pointing out that “the mighty ICAI now wants to jeopardise the career of a student on the score that it had not properly accorded permission or permission was not properly sought by the student,” the court declined to accept the decision of the ICAI.
“Such acts of the ICAI against a student who has only studied and done nothing else, that too after seeking prior permission would not behove the ICAI to be a State under Article 12 of the Constitution of India,” the HC observed while directing ICAI to consider her for enrolment within four weeks.
