India’s First Chartered Accountant (M.No. 001)- Mr. Gopaldas P. Kapadia

Articleship :

Shri GP Kapadia was the first member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and it says he was trained and did his apprenticeship under Certified Accountant Mr. Sorab Engineer who had this qualification under the Government Diploma in Accountancy, a course sanctioned by Indian Government back then.

In the year 1930 it was decided that the Government of India should maintain a register called the Register of Accountants.

Any person whose name was entered in such register was called a Registered Accountant.

Later on a board called the Indian Accountancy Board was established to advise the Governor General of India on accountancy and the qualifications for auditors.

However it was felt that the accountancy profession was largely unregulated, and this caused lots of confusion as regards the qualifications of auditors.

Hence in the year 1948, just after independence in 1947, an expert committee was created to look into the matter.

This expert committee recommended that a separate autonomous association of accountants should be formed to regulate the profession.

The Government of India accepted the recommendation and passed the Chartered Accountants Act in 1949 even before India became a republic.

Under section 3 of the said Act, ICAI is established as a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal.

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India’s First Chartered Accountant Certificate

Below is the signed Certificate of Membership of Mr.Kapadia. You can see No.1 written on the extreme top right.