A volume paper. The Companies Act carries most of it, and the winning skill is writing a structured answer fast rather than knowing more sections.
Corporate and Other Laws is large, and the temptation is to read it all once and hope. The papers reward the opposite: deep familiarity with the chapters that appear every attempt, written in a rule-application-conclusion structure. Case-scenario questions have grown in importance under the current scheme, and they punish rote recall that cannot be applied to facts.
Marks
100 marks
Duration
3 hours
Negative marking
None in the descriptive part; check the notification for the objective part
Pass requirement
40% in the paper, 50% in group aggregate
Paper format
Part objective (case-scenario MCQs) and part descriptive — confirm the current split in your exam notification
Confirm the pattern, marks split and any objective component against the ICAI notification for your own attempt before planning around it.
Integrated case scenarios with linked MCQs
Application of provisions to facts, not definitions.
Fact situations and provision questions
Compulsory question plus choice.
Bands follow the weightage published by ICAI for the current scheme. Read them as a guide to study order, not as a prediction of any one paper.
Allotment, transfer, and acceptance of deposits recur.
Meetings, directors and audit provisions are examined every attempt.
Doctrine questions appear as fact situations.
Short, definitional and reliably present.
Current versus capital account transactions dominate.
Compact chapter, dependable marks.
These are the forms that come back attempt after attempt. Each one has an opening move — the thing to write down before you start computing.
A company fact pattern followed by several questions applying specific provisions.
How to attack it
Read the questions before the scenario, then read the facts once with those questions in mind. It halves the reading time and stops you memorising irrelevant detail.
'Examine the validity', 'Advise the Board', 'Decide with reference to the provisions'.
How to attack it
Rule, application, conclusion, in three labelled paragraphs — and answer the exact question asked, whether that is validity, liability or procedure.
Notice periods, quorum, majority requirements, filing timelines.
How to attack it
These are pure memory and pure marks. Keep a single sheet of every number in the Act and revise it weekly.
Classification of a transaction, or a rule of interpretation applied to a short example.
How to attack it
Small chapters with predictable questions. Do not leave them to the last week.
A starting plan for the paper. Adapt the order to your own strengths — the point is to walk in with an order decided, because deciding it in the hall is what leaves questions unattempted.
Take the case scenarios first while you are fresh. They need careful reading and reward it.
Answer the fact situations and provision questions you know cold, in order of confidence.
Take what is left. Where the section escapes you, state the principle and conclude anyway.
Check that every answer ends in an explicit conclusion. Missing conclusions are the quietest loss in this paper.
Every one of these costs marks after the work was already done. They are the cheapest marks on the paper to recover.
What it costs
Five minutes per scenario and a fogged memory
Do this instead
Questions first. The facts then organise themselves around what you actually need.
What it costs
Time, and the marks in the questions you never reach
Do this instead
Answer the specific question. A validity question wants a verdict, not a treatise on the chapter.
What it costs
The most easily prepared marks in the paper
Do this instead
Numbers fade fastest. A single revision sheet of periods, percentages and quorums, revised weekly, protects them.
Still unsure about something? We're happy to help you figure it out.
Talk to usAround 30% comes as case-scenario MCQs under the current scheme, with the rest descriptive. The exact split and the treatment of wrong answers can change between notifications, so confirm it in the notification for your attempt rather than relying on a coaching summary.
For the chapters that appear every attempt, yes — they add precision and read as command. Elsewhere, knowing the rule and being able to apply it earns most of the marks. Never invent a section number; a wrong one costs more credibility than an omitted one.
Less than it used to be. Recall of thresholds and procedures still matters, but the case-scenario block tests whether you can apply a provision to facts you have not seen before. Preparation that stops at reading the sections leaves those marks on the table.
Business Laws
A memory paper that rewards structure. The Contract Act carries the paper, and the marks go to answers that name the section before they explain it.
Final · Paper 6Integrated Business Solutions and Corporate Laws
A case-study paper that tests integration, not recall. Knowing each subject separately is necessary and nowhere near sufficient.
Intermediate · Paper 5Auditing and Ethics
The Standards on Auditing carry this paper. Answers that use the standards' own language score materially higher than answers that describe the same idea in your words.
Please note
Weightage bands follow the skill-wise and chapter-wise weightage published in the ICAI syllabus and study material for the current scheme. Frequency labels (Every attempt / Most attempts / Alternate attempts / Occasional) describe recurring question forms observed across recent past papers and are editorial guidance, not an ICAI statistic — no breakdown here predicts what will be asked. Paper patterns, marks splits and the MCQ share change between schemes and notifications: always confirm against the exam notification and study material for your attempt before planning around any figure on this page.
Practise Corporate and Other Laws the way it is actually examined — past questions by chapter, full papers timed, and every answer evaluated step by step.
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