As per ICAI Norms, a CA Student undergoing CA Articleship is allowed to pursue 1 additional course apart from CA. However, students interested in pursuing additional course along with Articleship are required to obtain the permission of ICAI as well as the Principal (CA) under whom they are undergoing articleship. The permission of ICAI is required to be obtained in Form 112.

Form 112 for obtaining permission of ICAI to study additional course along with CA

The permission of ICAI is required to be obtained in Form 112 by all students who are interested in undertaking another additional course along with Articleship. This permission is required irrespective of whether the student intends to pursue the additional course through correspondence or Regular College. This permission in Form 112 is required for both graduation as well as post graduation courses.

The permission is required to be obtained either at the time of joining articleship (if the student is already pursuing the course) or after joining articleship (if the student intends to join the additional course after he has already started his articleship).

The Form 112 should be signed by the student himself as well as the Principal under whom the student is undergoing/ intends to undergo his articleship.

In case the course is being pursued through a Regular College, the college working hours and the duration of the course are also required to be intimated to ICAI and the Form 112 should also be signed by the College Principal.

In case the CA Student intends to pursue Regular College and is unable to the get the above mentioned information from the college, he/she can submit a copy of the prospectus containing details about college hours of the particular course proposed to be pursued.

In case the CA Student intends to pursue the course through Correspondence/ Distance Learning, he is required to attach the copy of the registration letter from the university in this regard.

Norms for undergoing additional course along with Articleship

  1. The working hours of the article assistant shall be 35 hours in a week excluding the lunch break
  2. The office hours of the principal for providing articled training to the articled assistant should not be generally before 9 AM or after 7 PM.
  3. The normal working hours for the articled assistant shall not start after 11:00 AM or end before 5:00 PM
  4. During the articleship working hours, the student is not permitted to attend college for any classes of any course (incl. graduation). Therefore, the college timings should be such (including commuting time) that it does not clash with the normal working hours of the articleship training.
  5. Leave in connection with the permitted course for the days of the relevant examination may ordinarily be granted by the principal. Any other leave for such course may be granted at the discretion of the principal.

Submission of Form 112 for permission of ICAI

Form 112 should be submitted to ICAI within 30 days. Form 112 for obtaining permission from ICAI can be downloaded from here – Download ICAI Form 112

In case of any delay in filing the form beyond the stipulated period, it has to be accompanied by a request for condonation and appropriate condonation fees as per the following schedule:-

Period of Delay in submitting Form 112Condonation Fees
Delay upto 30 days beyond the intial periodRs. 100
Delay between 31 to 180 daysRs. 300
Delay beyond 181 daysRs. 1000

Other Relevant Points

  1. If a student has not started articleship or has completed his articleship, these norms won’t apply to him and he is allowed to pursue any no. of courses without any approval of ICAI.
  2. Only 1 course is allowed to be pursued at a time incl. the Graduation course. A Student can only pursue another course once the previous course has been completed.
  3. Some universities also recognise the CA Degree as equivalent to Masters for pursuing Phd. (Download: List of Universities which consider CA Qualification for Phd)