Bengaluru student wins battle for membership to chartered accountancy institute

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to immediately grant membership to a student without any unwarranted delay.

The petitioner, Nikkitha KJ, a resident of Bengaluru, faced denial of membership due to her concurrent pursuit of multiple courses without adequate permission.

Nikkitha joined a BCom degree course in May 2017 in an evening college. She simultaneously enrolled in several other courses. She completed the CMA foundation course, CMA intermediate course and CS–Executive course before joining the Chartered Articleship training on August 27, 2018.

The petitioner asserted that, being already enrolled in the BCom course, she sought permission through the submission of Form 112 under Regulations 65 and 78 of the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988.

She also communicated with ICAI to seek approval for pursuing CMA finals in 2020 and CS-Professional in 2021, claiming permission had been granted for both requests.

On February 10, 2023, she applied for membership under the Chartered Accountants Act, only to be informed of a two-year waiting period and a Rs 10,000 fine for pursuing multiple courses.

Justice Nagaprasanna remarked that the situation would have been different had the petitioner not diligently sought permissions for her additional pursuits.

"It is rather surprising that the second respondent (ICAI) wants to stifle the career of a student, who has pursued multiple courses and gained such acumen to practice as a chartered accountant. It would be helpful to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Society, if a student has extra acumen, than the chartered accountantship alone.

"Such acts of the second respondent against a student who has only studied and done nothing else, that, too, after seeking permission would not behove the second respondent to be a state under Article 12 of the Constitution of India,” Justice Nagaprasanna said.

The court further said, “Whatever defence that the council for the second respondent seeks to project, by invoking Regulation 65 of the Regulations, by contending that the permission that was granted was for final courses and not foundation courses that precedes those final courses is a contention skating on thin ice, as the foundation courses gets subsumed in the final courses, and permission is granted for pursuing final courses.

"Therefore, this court repels those submissions of the learned counsel for second respondent, for the praedictus reasons, I deem it appropriate to bend the arc of justice for a student and direct grant of membership of the petitioner to the institute without brooking any further delay."