Alerts and Updates for ICSI CS Professional Programme

Professional Programme papers, December 2026 session

The Group 1 elective, an open-book paper with six subject options, falls on 28 December 2026 in the ICSI time table; the Group 2 elective has five subject options and is listed on 27 December alongside Tax Laws and Practice, so confirm the session timing for that day on the Institute's PDF. My CS MTP reports 30 December 2026 as a reserve day. All papers run 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm with the first fifteen minutes given to reading.

Dates and windows

The Professional Programme runs in two sessions a year, June and December, and registration stays open all year, but the cut-off for a given session falls six to seven months before it. Admit cards are reported as available about ten days before the papers, and the December result tentatively in February. Where a date is marked tentative it comes from a coaching source rather than an ICSI notice we could read.

What this means for your preparation

The Professional Programme is the last stage of the Company Secretary qualification, and the mistake that costs candidates a whole session is administrative rather than academic. Registration, the pre-examination test and exam enrolment are three separate gates with three separate deadlines spread across seven months. On 22 September 2026 two of them are hours apart: the pre-examination test on 24 September and the fee-free enrolment close on 25 September.

Three gates, not one application

To appear in December 2026 a candidate had to register by 31 May 2026 for all modules or 31 July for a single module, clear the mandatory pre-examination test by 24 September, and enrol for the session by 25 September without a late fee or by early October with one. Each gate is independent: being registered does not enrol you, and enrolling does not excuse the pre-examination test. The same sequence now runs for June 2027, where ArivuPro reports 30 November 2026 as the both-groups registration cut-off. Anyone still deciding between June and December 2027 should note that the choice is effectively made in November, not in the spring.

Group structure drives the sitting plan

The ICSI time table splits the December 2026 papers alternately between the two groups: Group 1 on 21, 23, 26 and 28 December and Group 2 on 22, 24 and 27 December, with 25 December free. A candidate attempting both groups therefore writes on seven consecutive available days with no gap longer than the Christmas break. That is a materially different revision problem from a single-group attempt, where papers fall two or three days apart. The alternating pattern is also why the late change-of-group facility, reported as open until 20 November, matters more here than in exams with a single continuous block.

Two of the papers are open book

Both elective papers are open book. The Group 1 elective, on 28 December, has six subject options and the Group 2 elective has five, and ArivuPro notes options ranging from arbitration and mediation to artificial intelligence and cyber security. Open book changes the preparation rather than removing it: the binding constraint in a 3 hour 15 minute paper is retrieval speed, so the useful work is indexing and tabbing permitted material and rehearsing application questions, not memorising it. Candidates who leave the elective until December on the assumption that the book will carry them routinely run out of time.

The ESG paper is the newest content

Environmental, Social and Governance - Principles and Practice opens the December 2026 Group 1 schedule on 21 December. It is the least settled of the core papers in terms of available past material, and older Professional Programme notes assembled before the 2022 syllabus will not cover it. The practical consequence is that study material for this paper should come from the Institute's own current issue rather than from second-hand compilations, and that the mandatory pre-examination test, which ArivuPro ties to 2022-syllabus registrations, is a reasonable checkpoint on whether your material matches the syllabus actually being examined.

Costs to budget beyond the exam fee

ArivuPro reports Professional Programme registration fees effective 15 April 2026 of 18,900 rupees for CSEET or Foundation pass holders and 23,900 rupees for ICMAI Final pass holders, with the pre-examination test charged separately at 1,000 rupees and a late enrolment fee of 250 rupees per group. Per-module examination fees were not stated in any source we could read, and nor were the Institute's current rules on registration validity, module exemptions or the practical training requirement. Those are set out on ICSI's own student portal and should be read there rather than inferred; no figures for them are given on this page.

Common questions

What is the last date to fill the CS Professional December 2026 exam form?

ArivuPro reports 25 September 2026 as the last date to enrol for the December 2026 session without a late fee, with a late-fee window running to 10 October 2026 at 250 rupees per group; CSExams gives the late-fee close as 9 October. Enrolment opened on 26 August 2026. Candidates under the 2022 syllabus must also have completed the mandatory pre-examination test, reported as due by 24 September 2026, before the enrolment can go through.

What is the CS Professional December 2026 exam timetable?

The ICSI time table places the papers between 21 and 28 December 2026 with no examination on 25 December. Group 1 sits ESG Principles and Practice on 21 December, Drafting, Pleadings and Appearances on 23 December, Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence on 26 December and its open-book elective on 28 December. Group 2 sits Strategic Management and Corporate Finance on 22 December, Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency on 24 December and Tax Laws and Practice on 27 December. Papers run 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm.

By when must I register to appear in the June 2027 session?

ArivuPro reports 30 November 2026 as the cut-off for registering in time to appear for both groups in June 2027, with a single-group cut-off estimated at 31 January 2027. The equivalent cut-offs for the December 2026 session were 31 May 2026 for all modules and 31 July 2026 for a single module, according to CSExams. Registration itself is open throughout the year; it is the session cut-off, not the registration window, that fixes when you can first sit.

Which CS Professional papers are open book?

The two elective papers. The ICSI December 2026 time table lists Elective 1, on 28 December, as an open-book paper with six subject options, and Elective 2, listed on 27 December, as an open-book paper with five subject options. The remaining core papers are conventional closed-book examinations. All papers, open book included, run for the same 2:00 pm to 5:15 pm slot with fifteen minutes of reading time at the start.

How much is the CS Professional registration fee in 2026?

ArivuPro reports registration fees effective 15 April 2026 of 18,900 rupees for candidates entering on a CSEET or Foundation pass and 23,900 rupees for those entering on an ICMAI Final pass, with the mandatory pre-examination test charged separately at 1,000 rupees. This is a single coaching source rather than an ICSI fee notice we could read, and per-module examination fees were not stated anywhere we could verify, so confirm both on the Institute's payment page before transferring money.

When will the December 2026 CS Professional result be declared?

CSExams reports the declaration as expected tentatively in February, which matches the Institute's usual interval between a session and its result. For the preceding session, ICSI's examinations page carries the notice declaring the results of the CS Professional Programme and Executive Programme examinations for June 2026 under the 2022 syllabus. No firm date for the December 2026 declaration has been published in any source we could read, so treat February as an expectation rather than a scheduled date.