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New Delhi:
An IIT aspirant who quit a private coaching centre because of
alleged poor facilities has got relief from Delhi's top consumer
court, which has ordered the institute to refund the Rs.75,000 fee
to him.
Delhi Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission member Salma Noor and
Member (Judicial) V.K. Gupta pulled up FIIT JEE's Punjabi Bagh
centre in west Delhi and ordered the refund to Prayank Madan, a
resident of Vikaspuri in west Delhi.
"There are a catena of judgments of the national consumer
commission as well as of this commission, that in case a student
has attended (a course) only one or two days, then it is incumbent
on the part of such institutes to refund the amount," the state
commission said in a recent order.
"In the case in hand, there is a specific allegation that the
institute is not up to the mark and the complainant had to
discontinue it after two days," the commission said, dismissing
FIIT JEE's appeal against a district forum order favouring Madan.
The institute now has the option of challenging the state
commission's order before the national consumer commission.
The student's mother Sunita Madan, in her complaint in the
district forum, said her son attended only two classes at the
institute Aug 2-3, 2008, as it was a very tough course. Also, the
quality of teaching was not up to the expected level.
She said when her son discontinued going to the institute she
approached FIIT JEE to get refund of the fee but the officials
refused to do that.
The district forum June 19, 2010, held that the institute was
wrong to hold Madan's fee and directed FIIT JEE to refund
Rs.75,000.
The institute challenged the forum's decision in the state
commission and filed a written statement denying all the
allegations and contending there was no deficiency in service on
its part.
Noor and Gupta dismissed the institute's defence and said: "After
going through the order of the district forum, we are in complete
agreement with the law referred by it in the impugned order."
While the complaint was pending before the forum, the institute
was told to deposit with it the entire amount paid by the
student's mother.
"The institute has deposited Rs.79,415 and the district forum has
deducted an amount of Rs.4,415 on the basis of the law laid down
in various cases as referred therein and directed only the refund
of Rs.75,000," the commission said.
Madan's mother said in her complaint that her son, who was
preparing for IIT-JEE in a two-year classroom programme, went for
inquiries July 31, 2008, and obtained admission into the course.
For the course, Madan issued cheques for Rs.1.23 lakh. However,
payment of one of the cheques, worth Rs. 44,944, was stopped by
her after her son stopped going to the institute, the complaint
said.
As her son stopped attending the course, Madan wrote letters to
the institute and sought a refund of the fee.
The complainant said she wrote several letters but there was no
favourable response from the institute, forcing her to move the
district forum for the refund.
(Rahul Chhabra can be contacted at rahul.c@ians.in)
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