Pune: Up to 1,000 students have rejoined the company secretary examination process since Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) announced the amnesty scheme in Jan 2026, national president Pawan Chandak said on Saturday at the 27th national conference of practising company secretaries held in Pune.“Many students had to leave the course midway on account of various reasons such as financial difficulties or other employment opportunities. After settling in their careers, many dropouts feel that they now have wherewithal to complete the course. The initiative was started keeping such aspirants in mind,” he said.The scheme is operational till June 30 and the ISCI council meeting scheduled in July will likely extend the scheme, Chandak said. Returning students will not have to start all over again but can join the corresponding level. High scoring students will also continue to receive certain exemptions after they rejoin the course.Chandak said there is lack of talented company secretaries in the industry as there are merely 80,800 company secretaries in India since the course started back in 1967 as against the 16 lakh registered companies which require professionals to handle their compliance burden. Of the total companies secretary members, there are roughly 17,000 professionals in Maharashtra and 25,000 in western region.The company secretary course is structured in CSEET (CS Executive Entrance Test) for students who have completed class 12 followed by the executive programme. Students can join executive programme directly after graduation. The professional programme is the final stage after which students receive ICSI membership and permit to practise or join corporate.Collectively, these levels are aimed at developing competent company secretaries capable of ensuring legal compliance, advising boards of directors, managing stakeholder relations and upholding high standards of corporate governance in an increasingly complex business environment.The entrance exam is conducted in Feb, June and Oct, while executive and professional programme exams are conducted in June and Dec. The pass percentage out of total students appearing in the professional programme is around 10% while it is 25% to 50% in executive and entrance levels. Around 5,000 students clear the final stage exam each year as against 40,000 to 45,000 aspirants, Chandak said.
