Action against OPJS University

It was brought to the notice that OPJS Uni­ver­si­ty, Chu­ru (Rajasthan), is offering/conducting cer­tain programmes/courses under the nomen­cla­ture “Mas­ter in C.A.” and “Bach­e­lor in C.A.” (under the School of Char­tered Accoun­tant). Con­duct of such cours­es under the said nomen­cla­ture are in con­tra­ven­tion of the pro­vi­sions of the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949 (CA Act) and var­i­ous oth­er laws.

It is stat­ed that the Insti­tute of Char­tered Accoun­tants of India (ICAI) filed a writ peti­tion against OPJS Uni­ver­si­ty before the Hon’ble Rajasthan High Court at Jodh­pur. The Divi­sion Bench of Rajasthan High Court at Jodh­pur on 10.07.2015 admit­ted the peti­tion and issued the notice to the OPJS Uni­ver­si­ty return­able with­in 6 weeks. The order dat­ed 10.07.2015 passed by the Hon’ble Court is repro­duced hereunder:-

“Admit.

Issue notice. Issue notice of the stay appli­ca­tion also. The rule issued is made return­able with­in six weeks.

In the mean­while and until fur­ther orders, the respon­dent No. 3 (OPJS Uni­ver­si­ty) is restrained from admit­ting any stu­dent in the School of Char­tered Accoun­tants for award­ing Mas­ters Degree in Char­tered Accoun­tan­cy, Bach­e­lors Degree in Char­tered Accoun­tan­cy, Diplo­ma in Char­tered Accoun­tan­cy and Cer­tifi­cate in Accoun­tan­cy. The Uni­ver­si­ty shall also not award degree diplo­ma or cer­tifi­cate aforesaid”.

In this con­nec­tion, it is rel­e­vant to men­tion that the ICAI is the only body set up by an Act of the Par­lia­ment, viz. The Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949, to reg­u­late the pro­fes­sion of Char­tered Accoun­tants in India and no person/body oth­er than the Insti­tute can per­form the func­tions entrust­ed to the ICAI under the said Act. The use of the expres­sion “Char­tered Accoun­tant” or its abbre­vi­a­tion “C.A.” by a per­son oth­er than the mem­ber of the ICAI is a pun­ish­able offence under the Char­tered Accoun­tants Act, 1949. Fur­ther, it may be men­tioned that award­ing any degree, diplo­ma or cer­tifi­cate or bestow­ing of any des­ig­na­tion which indi­cate or pur­ports to indi­cate the posi­tion or attain­ment of any qual­i­fi­ca­tion or com­pe­tence sim­i­lar to that of a mem­ber of the ICAI is also pun­ish­able offence under the CA Act.