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Coaching and professional institutes in several states have paid back a total of ₹1.56 crore they owed to students in dues and refunds, which they had been denying in violation of their own terms and conditions, following a nationwide crackdown by the consumer affairs ministry, a top bureaucrat overseeing the exercise said.
Most of these education firms which complied with instructions to make immediate refunds have been let off with a warning while a special team formed to look into complaints by students is pursuing others, consumer affairs secretary Nidhi Khare said.
“By resolving grievances at the pre-litigation stage, the ministry has helped to prevent the escalation of disputes. This has proven especially beneficial for students, saving them time-consuming legal proceedings,” Khare said.
Fierce competition to secure an engineering or a medical seat and exaggerated assurances of success in civil-services tests often push aspirants into mental trauma and suicide, a key reason why the government has tightened regulations.
Also read: CCPA imposes ₹2 lakh fine on Shubhra Ranjan IAS Study for misleading ad about UPSC toppers
Aakash Kumar (name changed) had enrolled for a GATE (graduate aptitude test in engineering) course at a Kota-based institute.
The student decided to withdraw within 15 days because of poor teaching quality and was entitled to a full refund, which was denied.
He then lodged a complaint with the national consumer helpline (1915). Officials at the toll-free helpline are statutorily empowered to register complaints, which are then taken up by the ministry.
Authorities issued a deadline to the institute to make the full refund, failing which, it was told, legal action would be taken under the Consumer Protection Act 2019. “I got back my refund in four days. But this whole thing caused a lot of stress,” Kumar said over phone.
Fierce competition to secure an engineering or a medical seat and exaggerated assurances of success in civil-services tests often push aspirants into mental trauma and suicide, a key reason why the government has tightened regulations.
India’s ed-tech market, which was valued at $7.5 billion in 2024, is projected to reach $29 billion by 2030, according to a latest report by Grant Thornton.
Spawning coaching institutes and their operations sparked a major controversy when three students drowned after their illegal basement classroom was flooded after a cloudburst in Delhi on July 28 last year.
Investigations into one complaint revealed a web of complaints and fraud. A dedicated team now looks into problems of the student community, the official said.
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), a federal regulator, has issued new guidelines for mushrooming coaching centres, banning misleading ads.
Civil services coaching institutes are being routinely watched, Khare said, due to a huge number of complaints.
Last week, the CCPA issued notices to IITian’s Prashikshan Kendra Pvt. Ltd. (IITPK) for advertising misleading claims regarding the results of the IIT-JEE examination.
Recently, the regulator imposed a penalty of ₹3 lakh on Sriram’s IAS, which trains aspirants for civil-services examination, for misleading and exaggerated claims in its advertisements.
Both IITPK and Sriram’s did not immediately respond to queries from HT.
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