The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) informed the Supreme Court on Thursday that it would assess the feasibility of conducting CA exams, scheduled to be held from July 29 to August 16, in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases across the country and consult states and examination centres first.

The ICAI counsel told a bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar that coronavirus cases have increased and some states have extended restrictions.

He sought time from the bench, also having Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, to contact exam centres to assess the ground situation and explore the feasibility of organising the tests.

The top court was hearing through videoconference a plea by the president of the India Wide Parents Association challenging the “opt out” option provided by the ICAI to the candidates.

The petition has alleged that such an option is “arbitrarily” discriminatory against certain examinees. The court will hear the matter again on July 10.

On June 29, the apex court had observed that the ICAI should be flexible in conducting exams amid the Covid-19 pandemic and take care of the candidates’ concerns.

It had suggested that candidates be allowed to change their examination centre till a week before the exam, considering the fact that an area may become a containment zone at any time.

The apex court had said the ICAI should be flexible on the issues of “opt out” and change of exam centre as the pandemic situation was fluid.

Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, appearing for the petitioner, had earlier told the bench that the number of exam centres should be increased and there should be one centre per district.

The ICAI had said making such arrangements would be difficult, adding that over 500 examination centres have been identified and sanitised.

The ICAI counsel had earlier said that out of around 346,000 registered aspirants, only 53,000 have taken the “opt out” option.

The petitioner has stated that students who have already submitted online examination application for the May examination cycle shall be allowed to “opt out” and carry forward their candidature to the November cycle.