law: Company Secretaries Act, 1980
  5. Associates and Fellows
  
  (1) The members of the Institute shall be
  
  divided into two classes designated respectively as Associates and Fellows.
  (2) Any person other than a person to whom the
  
  provisions of sub-section (4) apply, shall, on his name being entered in the
  
  Register, be deemed to have become an Associate and as long as his name remains
  
  so entered, shall be entitled to use the letters "A.C.S." after his
  
  name to indicate that he is an Associate.
  (3) A person, being an Associate who has been
  
  in continuous practice in India as a Company Secretary for at least five years
  
  and a person who has been an Associate for a continuous period of not less than
  
  five years and who possesses such qualifications or practical experience as the
  
  Council may prescribe with a view to ensuring that he has experience equivalent
  
  to the experience normally acquired as a result of continuous practice for a
  
  period of five years as a Company Secretary shall, on payment of the prescribed
  
  entrance fee, which shall not exceed four hundred rupees in any case, and on
  
  application made and granted in the prescribed manner, be entered in the
  
  Register as a Fellow.
  Explanation I: For the purposes of
  
  this sub-section, a person shall be deemed to have practised 
  
  in  India for any period for
  
  which he has held a certificate of practice under section 6, notwithstanding
  
  that he did not actually practice during that period.
  
  Explanation II : In computing the period during which a person has been
  
  an Associate of the Institute, there shall be included any continuous period
  
  during which the person has been an Associate of the dissolved company
  
  immediately before he became an Associate of the Institute.
  (4) Any person who was a Fellow of the
  
  dissolved company and who is entitled to have his name entered in the Register
  
  under clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 4, shall be entered in the
  
  Register as a Fellow.
  (5) Any person whose name is entered in the Register as a Fellow shall, so long as his name remains so entered, be entitled to use the letters "F.C.S." after his name to indicate that he is a Fellow.