The CA Institute has requested the government to give its nod for one more Bench of disciplinary committee to strengthen the disciplinary mechanism around the CA profession, said its newly elected President Naveen N.D. Gupta.

This proposed new Bench of disciplinary committee will be dedicated for “public interest cases” that may warrant immediate attention, Gupta said soon after assuming charge as the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

“We have also requested for more government nominees to be appointed so that we could have one more Board of Discipline,” he added.

As on date, the ICAI has, as part of its disciplinary mechanism, just one Board of Discipline and one bench of Disciplinary Committee.

Gupta admitted that he was taking charge of the CA Institute at a time when the public perception about the effectiveness of the CA Institute’s “disciplinary mechanism” was negative.

“Let me assure you that we are taking all steps to ensure that our disciplinary mechanism works effectively in addressing any misconduct of our members without any delay,” he said. Gupta also said that the CA Institute had in 2011 itself sought powers to take disciplinary action against errant CA firms. “We still stand by that request which is before the Corporate Affairs Ministry since 2011,” Gupta added.

He said that the CA Institute has been taking proactive measures to clear pendency of disciplinary cases. “Pendency of cases has come down to two years from about four to five years earlier,” he added.

On National Financial Reporting Authority, Gupta said that the CA Institute is aligned with the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and is working with the government to ensure that the panel’s recommendation gets implemented. It may be recalled that the Standing Committee on Finance had suggested that the time was not ripe to have another body (other than ICAI) to have oversight on the audit profession.

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