New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to modify the opt-out facility provided to the students for the examinations beginning on July 5.

A Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose was hearing three separate petitions seeking exam postponement, opt-out options, more centres and an extra chance on upcoming Chartered Accountant (CA) exam 2021.

The Top Court directed ICAI to provide opt-out facility to even those students who changed their centres at the last moment in the same city.

However, the Top Court laid down a few conditions in regards to opt-out of the exam due to COVID-19.

The candidates or their family members who are contracted Covid-19 and could not prepare or appear for the exam due to this reason will not necessarily be required to produce RT-PCR test to avail opt-out option.

Earlier, the ICAI had informed the Apex Court that since there is a dip in the number of COVID-19 cases, it is in the best interest of 3.74 lakh candidates that CA exams are held as scheduled in July instead of postponing it for later date.

The Bench had asked the Accountancy Body to provide detailed plans on how it intends to secure the exam halls from infection.

The ICAI should have a “competent authority” with medical experience to chalk out the objective standards by which candidates could opt out of the July exams and try again in the November 2021 examination cycle, the Bench said.

The Court asked the Counsel if alternate methods other than the RT-PCR certificate can be adopted to assess whether a candidate is medically unfit to appear for the exams scheduled to start from July 5 due to COVID-19 related difficulties.