Company Secretaryship · The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), a statutory body under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980
CS Professional — Company Secretary Professional Programme — the qualifying stage of the CS qualification
The complete CS Professional blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
5 papers modelled of 7 — two are open-book electives, not modelled here100% descriptive every paper — no objective/MCQ component at all40% + 50% per paper, and per group in aggregate, to pass Free · tutor-verified
CS Professional at a glance
Conducted byThe Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), a statutory body under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980
CycleTwice a year — June and December sessions, the same sitting windows as CS Executive
ModePen-and-paper at ICSI examination centres. Every paper is wholly descriptive, three hours for 100 marks; the two elective papers are open-book
EligibilityBoth groups of CS Executive must be cleared to register for Professional. The 30-day Executive Development Programme and the 21-month practical training that follows Executive can run alongside Professional-level study — Professional exams may be attempted while training is still in progress. A shorter Professional Development Programme, taken after clearing Professional, precedes ICSI membership.
LanguagesEnglish
Qualifies you forA qualified Company Secretary's compensation depends heavily on the route taken — an in-house/industry compliance role, independent practice, or a specialised governance/M&A-advisory track. Senior in-house roles (Company Secretary, Head of Compliance, General Counsel-adjacent positions) and specialised practice (secretarial audit, due diligence, NCLT/insolvency practice) command materially more than entry-level compensation; independent-practice income is comparatively back-loaded and depends heavily on client base.
Where CS Professional leads
ICSI membership and the right to practise as a Company SecretaryWhole-time Company Secretary roles — mandatory for every listed company, and for public and private companies above Rs. 10 crore paid-up share capitalSecretarial audit practice — a function reserved for a Company Secretary in practice under Section 204NCLT/NCLAT practice, corporate restructuring and insolvency-resolution advisory rolesESG, CSR and sustainability-reporting advisory roles as BRSR obligations widenLegal drafting, due-diligence and M&A-support roles in corporate law and investment-banking-adjacent practice
⚡ What changed recently
- The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026 (Act No. 6 of 2026, most provisions notified with effect from 26 May 2026) added a new Chapter IV-A — the Creditor-Initiated Insolvency Resolution Process (CIIRP), Sections 58A-58K — an out-of-court-initiated, debtor-in-possession track that financial creditors holding 51% or more of financial debt can start after 30 days' notice, running alongside (not replacing) the classical CIRP this hub teaches as the baseline process. The same Act also enables (by rules yet to be prescribed) a group-insolvency framework and a cross-border insolvency mechanism.
- A separate Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 — introduced March 2026, reported by a Joint Parliamentary Committee in August 2026 but not yet passed into law as of this content's last review — proposes raising Section 135's CSR net-profit trigger from Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 10 crore. This hub teaches the current, still-applicable Rs. 5 crore figure; treat the higher figure as pending, not current, until the Bill is enacted.
- SEBI's BRSR Core assurance glide path now covers the top 1,000 listed entities by market capitalisation from FY 2026-27 — the widest tier of the phase-in is live for the current financial year, not merely announced. A March 2025 SEBI circular also softened the original mandate, letting companies choose reasonable assurance or a third-party assessment against Industry Standards Forum benchmarks.
- SEBI's LODR Regulations tightened the Nomination and Remuneration Committee's independence requirement from one-half to two-thirds independent directors with effect from 1 January 2022, and a Fifth Amendment notified 19 November 2025 revised related-party-transaction materiality and reporting rules further — confirm the current numeric RPT materiality threshold against SEBI's own text before citing a specific figure.
- The Annual Secretarial Compliance Report that every listed entity files under LODR Regulation 24A must, with effect from 1 April 2025, be signed only by the Secretarial Auditor or by a Peer Reviewed Company Secretary — a recent tightening worth knowing precisely.
How CS Professional selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
FOUR PAPERS, 400 MARKS (THREE MODELLED ON THIS HUB)
Group 1 — ESG, Drafting Pleadings & Appearances, Compliance Management Audit & Due Diligence, plus an Elective 1 paper
The group most candidates attempt first. All papers are wholly descriptive; the elective is open-book.
THREE PAPERS, 300 MARKS (TWO MODELLED ON THIS HUB)
Group 2 — Strategic Management & Corporate Finance, Corporate Restructuring Valuation & Insolvency, plus an Elective 2 paper
The group that completes the level. Both groups may be attempted together or one at a time, in either order.
CONTINUES FROM EXECUTIVE-LEVEL REGISTRATION
Practical training and Professional Development Programme
The 21-month practical training begun at Executive level can run alongside Professional study. A shorter Professional Development Programme follows clearing Professional.
ADMISSION AS A COMPANY SECRETARY
ICSI membership
Passing both Professional groups, plus completed training, admits a candidate to ICSI membership and the right to practise, including conducting secretarial audits and appearing before the NCLT/NCLAT.
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
Group 1 — ESG, Drafting Pleadings & Appearances, Compliance Management Audit & Due Diligence, plus an Elective 1 paper
The group most candidates attempt first300 marks · Wholly descriptive — parts of 5 or 10 marks, case studies up to 15 Q
3 hours per paper · Not applicable — no objective component
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 — ESG: Principles and Practice | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 2 — Drafting, Pleadings and Appearances | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 3 — Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
💡 This group's official total is 400 marks across four papers; this hub models the three compulsory papers (300 marks) and excludes the Elective 1 paper, chosen at enrolment from a fixed list.
Group 2 — Strategic Management & Corporate Finance, Corporate Restructuring Valuation & Insolvency, plus an Elective 2 paper
The group that completes the level200 marks · Wholly descriptive — parts of 5 or 10 marks, case studies up to 15 Q
3 hours per paper · Not applicable — no objective component
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 5 — Strategic Management and Corporate Finance | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 6 — Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
💡 This group's official total is 300 marks across three papers; this hub models the two compulsory papers (200 marks) and excludes the Elective 2 paper, chosen at enrolment from a fixed list.
Where CS Professional's marks come from
Seven papers of 100 marks under Syllabus 2022, arranged in two groups — Group 1 has four papers (three compulsory plus one elective), Group 2 has three (two compulsory plus one elective). The two elective papers are open-book (candidates may bring permitted printed material into the exam) and each is chosen at enrolment from a fixed list — Elective 1 currently offers CSR & Social Governance, Internal and Forensic Audit, Intellectual Property Rights, AI/Data Analytics & Cyber Security, and IFSCA Regulations; Elective 2 currently offers Arbitration Mediation & Conciliation, GST & Corporate Tax Planning, Labour Laws, Banking & Insurance Laws, and Insolvency & Bankruptcy Law. Neither elective is modelled on this hub, since a question set built for one elective is of no use to a candidate who chose another — this hub covers the five compulsory papers in full. Click any block to open its chapters:
ESG — Principles and Practice100 marks · 20%
Group 1. Board governance and committees share the paper with CSR, stakeholder engagement and sustainability/BRSR reporting — the fastest-moving content on this hub, with live 2025-2026 regulatory changes on both halves.
Drafting, Pleadings and Appearances100 marks · 20%
Group 1. Drafting deeds, agreements and corporate documents shares the paper with pleadings and appearances before the NCLT and NCLAT — a genuinely new practical-skill paper on this hub, with no CA/CMA equivalent.
Compliance Management, Audit and Due Diligence100 marks · 20%
Group 1. Secretarial audit under Section 204 shares the paper with due diligence practice for securities issues, mergers and banking transactions — the paper closest to a practising Company Secretary's specialist certification work.
Strategic Management and Corporate Finance100 marks · 20%
Group 2. Strategic management aliases from CA Intermediate's own Strategic Management chapters; corporate finance — sources of long-term finance, project appraisal, treasury and risk management — is new, final-level content.
Corporate Restructuring, Valuation and Insolvency100 marks · 20%
Group 2. Mergers, valuation and takeovers alias from CA Final's Advanced Financial Management; the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code — the largest genuinely new topic in this cluster — has no CA/CMA equivalent anywhere on this hub.
Subjects in CS Professional
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Board Governance, Committees and Business Ethics | ~48 | Very high |
| CSR, Stakeholder Engagement and ESG Investing | ~34 | Very high |
| Integrated Reporting, Sustainability Reporting and BRSR | ~18 | High |
🎯 This is this hub's fastest-moving paper — SEBI's LODR governance thresholds and BRSR's assurance glide path have both changed materially in 2025-2026, so an answer that states last year's numeric threshold with total confidence is a wrong answer, not a nearly-right one. Anchor every governance answer to the specific LODR regulation number and every ESG-reporting answer to the specific SEBI circular, rather than a general description.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Drafting of Deeds, Commercial Agreements and Corporate Documents | ~58 | Very high |
| Pleadings and Appearances before the NCLT, NCLAT and Other Tribunals | ~42 | Very high |
🎯 A practical-skill paper, marked on format as much as content — a drafting answer is graded on whether it includes the clauses a real instrument of that kind would need, in something close to the right order, not on legal analysis alone. Build a mental checklist per instrument (a JV agreement's clause list looks nothing like a sale deed's) rather than one generic template stretched across every question.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Compliance Management and Secretarial Audit | ~55 | Very high |
| Due Diligence in Securities Issues, Mergers and Banking Transactions | ~45 | Very high |
🎯 Secretarial audit is this hub's most distinctly CS-exclusive statutory function — know precisely which companies Section 204 applies to (the private-company borrowing threshold is the one candidates most often forget) and the exact form and filing route. Due diligence is scenario-driven: practise spotting which red flag belongs to legal versus financial due diligence, since exam questions are built to test exactly that distinction.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction to Strategic Management | ~14 | High |
| Strategic Analysis: External and Internal Environment | ~16 | Very high |
| Strategic Choices, Implementation and Evaluation | ~14 | High |
| Corporate Finance: Long-Term Sources, Project Appraisal and Treasury Management | ~56 | Very high |
🎯 Strategic management's frameworks (Porter's five forces, SWOT, the industry life cycle) are the fastest marks in the paper once attached correctly to a described situation, exactly as at CA Intermediate. Corporate finance is this paper's final-level content — sources of long-term finance, project appraisal and treasury operations are tested as practical, decision-oriented scenarios rather than the formula-heavy capital-budgeting style of CA Intermediate's own Financial Management paper.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Business and Corporate Valuation | ~24 | High |
| Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Restructuring | ~30 | Very high |
| Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code: CIRP, Liquidation and Pre-Packaged Resolution | ~46 | Very high |
🎯 The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code is this paper's largest genuinely new topic and the one most worth over-preparing — its timelines (180+90 days, the 330-day outer limit treated as directory not mandatory per Essar Steel), voting thresholds (66%/51%) and Section 53 waterfall are exactly the kind of precise, nameable facts that separate a strong answer from a vague one, and the 2026 amendment's new creditor-led track (CIIRP) is genuinely current content most competing material won't yet cover.
CS Professional resources
Everything you need to prepare.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Seven papers of 100 marks: Group 1 has four (ESG, Drafting Pleadings & Appearances, Compliance Management Audit & Due Diligence, plus an Elective 1 paper), Group 2 has three (Strategic Management & Corporate Finance, Corporate Restructuring Valuation & Insolvency, plus an Elective 2 paper). This hub covers the five compulsory papers in full and does not model either elective, since a question set built for one elective is of no use to a candidate who chose another.
Elective 1 (choose one): CSR & Social Governance; Internal and Forensic Audit; Intellectual Property Rights — Law & Practice; Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Cyber Security — Laws & Practice; IFSCA — Regulations, Listing and Compliances. Elective 2 (choose one): Arbitration, Mediation & Conciliation; GST & Corporate Tax Planning; Labour Laws & Practice; Banking & Insurance — Laws & Practice; Insolvency and Bankruptcy — Law & Practice. Both lists are periodically revised by ICSI — confirm the current options before enrolling.
No. Every CS Professional paper, compulsory and elective alike, is wholly descriptive — there is no MCQ or case-study-objective component at this level at all.
The same structure as Executive: at least 40 marks in each individual paper of a group, and at least 50% of the group's aggregate.
The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) Act, 2026 added a Creditor-Initiated Insolvency Resolution Process (CIIRP) — an out-of-court-initiated track financial creditors holding 51% or more of financial debt can start, with the corporate debtor's existing management staying in place under a resolution professional's oversight. It sits alongside, not in place of, the classical CIRP process this hub teaches as the baseline — most provisions took effect 26 May 2026.
Not yet. A Corporate Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 proposes raising Section 135's CSR net-profit trigger from Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 10 crore, and a Joint Parliamentary Committee reported on it in August 2026, but it had not been enacted as of this content's last review. This hub teaches the current, still-applicable Rs. 5 crore figure — always confirm against the current Companies Act text before an exam attempt.
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