The Hindu : New Delhi News : Coaching centres pulled up

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Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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New Delhi

Coaching centres pulled up

New Delhi: Professional coaching institutes FIIT-JEE and Brilliant Tutorials have incurred the wrath of the Delhi Consumer Commission for their failure to refund fees to students who opted out of a course in the middle of a session.

Dismissing the appeals of both the institutes in separate decisions, the Commission pulled them up for ignoring its earlier direction restraining educational institutes from collecting a one-time fee for a two or a three-year course.

The Commission in a recent orders directed FIIT-JEE to pay Rs.62,000 to Pramod Panwar and asked Brilliant Tutorials have been ordered to pay Rs.23,000 to Ashish Yadav. The Commission also slapped a fine of Rs.10,000 on Brilliant’s Tutorial.

“By charging consideration for 2-3 years duration, the institutes force the students to go on attending their classes despite there being unsatisfactory services or grossest deficiency in the quality of teaching, which jeopardise their career prospects,” it noted in identical orders.

Reiterating that the clause stating “fees once paid is non-refundable” was unconscionable and amounted to unfair trade practice, the Commission said that such a term was adverse to the interest of the consumer.

A candidate is “justified” in leaving a course mid-way as continuing with a non-yielding training would prove futile, it said adding that the institutes could not be allowed to usurp the consideration without having provided any service to them.

Terming as “fallacious” the institutes’ contention regarding financial loss in the cases of student leaving mid way, the Commission reasoned that there was a long queue of wait listed candidates for the centres of their repute.- PTI

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