CS Professional Papers and the 11 Open-Book Electives, December 2026

The CS Professional Programme is the last examination stage of the Company Secretary course. Under Syllabus 2022 it has seven papers in two groups: three core papers and one elective in each. Group 1's elective is picked from six options and Group 2's from five, so there are 11 electives in all, and ICSI's time table marks both elective papers as open book. This guide lists every paper, gives the December 2026 dates, sets out the 11 electives with the facts ICSI publishes about each, and explains how to change your choice. Pass rules are in our Professional passing-marks guide; the training you need for membership is in our EDP and training guide. ProSyllabus is an independent study site. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI); every rule below is quoted or summarised from ICSI's published documents, and ICSI decides every individual case.

ICSI December 2026 time table and student services FAQ.

Syllabus 2022 was first examined at Professional level in June 2024. The last Syllabus 2017 Professional examination was June 2025, and the FAQ says every remaining student had to switch to the new syllabus from the December 2025 session. If you started under the old syllabus, the switchover table further down shows which old papers carry an exemption into the new one.

Every paper runs from 2:00 PM to 5:15 PM IST, and the first 15 minutes (2:00 to 2:15) are reading time. The papers alternate between the groups, so a student sitting both groups has an exam on each of the seven days from 21 to 28 December except Christmas Day. The two open-book electives come last: Elective 2 on Sunday 27 December and Elective 1 on Monday 28 December.

You choose one elective in each group. Group 1's is Paper 4 and Group 2's is Paper 7. Because each group is passed or failed as a whole, the elective counts exactly as much as each core paper in its group. The table sets out the facts ICSI publishes for each option: the study-material date for December 2026, whether an ICMAI Final pass can exempt it, and which Syllabus 2017 elective, if any, carries an exemption into it.

The December 2026 time table prints "[Open Book Exam.]" against both electives and against no other Professional paper. That is the whole of what our sources say about the open-book format. We did not find an ICSI document in our sources that lists which books or notes may be taken in, so check the instructions that come with your admit card, which ICSI issues about ten days before the exams. Our reading: an open-book paper rewards knowing where things are in your material more than memorising them, which is one reason the study-material date in the table above matters. A book updated to May 2025 will not show a change made after it.

Two practical points follow from the table. First, an ICMAI Final pass changes the arithmetic: it can exempt Paper 5 and Elective 4.2, and one of Electives 7.2 and 7.4, but only if you apply for the Professional exemptions afresh. Second, a student who passed the Executive tax paper may notice the obvious link to Electives 4.5 and 7.2; that link is our reading of the paper names, not an ICSI exemption, and nothing carries over automatically. Details and fees are in our group-rules guide.

ICSI's FAQ maps each Syllabus 2017 Professional paper you passed to an exemption under Syllabus 2022. Where the FAQ says "no exemption", the old paper does not count for anything in the new scheme.

Old-syllabus module passes are also recognised in the pass rule itself: clause (a)(ii) of the Professional qualifying-marks text lets a student who passed one or more old-syllabus modules pass the rest of the Professional Programme on the remaining papers alone. How the 40% and 50% tests work is explained once, in our Executive passing-marks guide; the rules are the same at Professional.

Registration needs a pass in both Executive groups under the same syllabus. The fee is Rs 20,000 (education fee Rs 19,000 plus a pre-examination test fee of Rs 1,000). The registration cut-offs are fixed: for a December exam, register by 31 May to sit both groups or 31 July to sit one; for a June exam, by 30 November of the year before (both groups) or 31 January (one group). The FAQ says a student who registers after the cut-off cannot appear in that session. The full fee table, concessions and exam fees are in our group-rules guide.