Schools come under consumer services: panel

In her complaint to the Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum,Shinde claimed she met the principal after the cancellation of admission and brought up the issue of quality and infrastructure provided by the school. She made a series of allegations regarding the services provided by the school,which the forum did not accept.

The forum,however,took note of the tuition fees charged by private schools. Observing that educational institutes charging tuition fees for the entire course at the beginning of the academic year is an unfair trade practice,the forum asked the school to refund Shinde within four weeks of the order.

“By not refunding the fees of a student who has withdrawn from the institute,the institute is making money. Such institutes have turned schools into commercial shops. There cannot be a worse form of unfair trade practice,” the forum observed.

The school has been asked to pay Rs 5,000 towards compensation for mental agony and torture and Rs 2,000 towards litigation cost. “We deprecate the practice of taking lump sum fees for the whole duration of the course. By taking lump sum fees institutes bind the students to compulsorily get coaching from the said institute even if he finds the coaching substandard,” said Jyoti Iyer and M G Rahargaonkar,forum members.