In a world full of competition, every parent wants their child to stand out. For this they try to provide them with best resources, one such resource being coaching institutes. Coaching institutes were initially established with the motive to help students with their studies. It can be seen that the motive has now changed. With the same intention being now driven by money motive, institutes tend to charge advance fees. Payment of advance fees has caused various problems to many parents, but they don’t do anything as they think that it is the only way apart from the motive that they want to give their children the best.

Recently, in Gurgaon a parent bought an action against FIIT-JEE Limited for the repayment of the fees deposited in advance which was denied by the latter. Ashok Gupta admitted his son, Jatin Gupta in the said institute by paying Rs 1.22 lakhs in advance on January 26th, 2016 for 2 years. A few months later, his son was not satisfied by the teaching patterns. Later in month of October, he could not appear for a test due to bad health. As a result he was shifted to a lower batch from a higher one. The teachers started mentally harassing him which led to shattering of his confidence as said by the psychologist he consulted. Ashok later enrolled his son in a different institute where he paid Rs. 1.15 lakhs again. He asked FIIT-JEE for a refund with they denied. He then bought a suit against him.

Coaching Institutes Deficiency in Services
Deficiency in Services of Coaching Institues

Institutes fall under the purview of consumer protection act, and the student and his parents are considered to be consumers. Institutes provide the services to the students and their parents. Hence in case of any short fall an action can be brought against them. Moreover, as per the law no person can charge more than what was provided by him, services or goods. The forum, based on the guidelines of Supreme Court, ruled out that the institutes are imparting education but are not considered as academic institutes as they are not affiliated with academic boards. Hence, they can only charge for the services that that have provided and not more than that.

This case proves that every ill in the society has a solution. Consumer of any good or service has a right to report against it if it is not proper. No person has the right to exploit the consumer as they are the bases of their survival.

This post is written by Shruti Dhar, a student of  Manipal University, Jaipur. For more info, please dial 7888-356908 for LegalSeva.