The tu-tu main-main between the Principal and Articled Trainees is akin to saans-bahu zagada. At least the ICAI has now realised that and washed its hands off them vide its Noticfication of 2nd July 2010 on Transfer of Articles. They have left the matter to be settled amicably among the articled assistant and the prinicpal concerned and added that the Insitute shall not interfere in such cases.
In all probably, the Institute must have been flooded with such cases and cannot afford to have a judicial or administrative machinery to handle the ever mounting disputes, and perhaps rightly left it to be sorted out amongst the disputing parties without any interference from Institute officials, Board of Studies, Regional Council Members and the Central Council Memebrs. In other words, any such interference will be deemed violative of this notification and can be contested by either of the parties. In case the student community feared that the power politics of votes from members tilted the scale in member's favour in case of dispute, now they can object to any such interference.
All disputes arising after this notification, that is, wef 2nd July 2010, as also all unresolved disputes as on the date will now have to be amicably decided between the articled trainee and the principal with no interference from the officials of the Institute or the Council Members.
However, if one considers the fact that a large number of complaints originate from one of the party, namely, the articles or Principal, the chances of such amicable settlements now will be even lesser and the time taken to resolve them would be longer. May be there will be a saving in terms of avoiding the long procedures of dipute reolution at ICAI earlier. It would therefore be prudent not to unduly charge up or add to the issues, identify the core issues, go for settlement without wasting time and go with open mind and mutual respect inspite of disputes if you want to resolve them. You may not have it all your way, but some solution is better than none. Else, the issues can linger on for ever without any recourse to external adjudicating authority like ICAI which will not be good for either of the parties, and especially the articled trainees who have exams and career waiting for them with no buffer for time.
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