ICAI Announces One-Time Window to Convert Exhausted Exemption into Permanent for CA Final Students

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India has issued important guidelines regarding the permanent exemption for CA Final students. This rule is especially for those candidates whose exemption has been or is about to be exhausted.

As per the guidelines issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Candidates who had obtained exemption in the November 2024 examination and whose exemption was valid till the January 2026 examination will get the opportunity to make this exemption permanent after the declaration of January 2026 results. The exemption, which expires after the result of the third examination, will be visible to candidates within a stipulated period. This period will be from 3 March 2026 to 22 March 2026.

Application Process

Candidates wishing to make the exemption permanent must apply through their SSP Dashboard. This facility will be available only from March 3, 2026, to March 22, 2026. Candidates will get only one chance to make the exemption permanent. If the application is not made within this period, the exemption will lapse forever.

Key rules for permanent exemption

If a candidate has an exemption in two papers of the same group (e.g., Paper 1 and Paper 2 in Group 1), then they will have to make both of them permanent together, or both will have to lapse. There will be no option to choose only one paper.
If an exemption in any group is made permanent, the candidate must obtain at least 50% marks in the remaining papers of that group. If a group already has a Permanent Exemption (50PE), no further new exemption will be given in that group.

The Correction Window will not be available once applied:

There will be no correction window and no second chance, even with late fees. If the candidate wishes, he can later surrender the permanent exemption and reappear in that paper. Candidates who got an exemption in Paper 4 (between May 2022 and November 2023) will automatically get a permanent exemption from the Self-Paced Online Module SET-A. There is no need to apply. Candidates who got exemption in Paper 5 (between May 2022 and November 2023) will automatically get permanent exemption from appearing in Self-Paced Online Module SET-B and need not apply.

On taking permanent exemption, the maximum marks of that paper will be considered as 50, and the excess marks of the permanently exempted paper cannot be considered for complying with the 50 aggregate marks requirement of the same or any other Group.