Why Kerala consumer forum ordered Byju’s to refund Rs 8.5 lakh and pay Rs 1 lakh compensation

Background

• The complainant had alleged that his son, who was studying in Class IX, had enrolled in Byju’s online course.
• After a meeting of the company representative and the complainant, he paid an amount of Rs 20,000 as a spot registration fee. However, the very next day, the complainant decided to cancel the course as his son wished to pursue offline classes and requested a refund through email.
• It was alleged that the complainant sent several e-mails to cancel the course, however there was no reply to the mails or phone calls.
• Subsequently, the complainant allegedly received a call from Byju’s Bengaluru office, during which he was instructed to download a remote access application and share his bank details for processing the refund.
• Later, an amount of Rs 8 lakh was unexpectedly credited to the complainant’s bank account, following which several unauthorised transactions were carried out, resulting in a debit of approximately Rs 8.32 lakh.
• Realising that a fraud had occurred, the complainant informed his bank, approached the RBI Ombudsman, and lodged a complaint with the cyber cell, leading to registration of an FIR.

Findings

• In spite of sending a number of emails, the opposite party did not even care to reply to any of those email communications sent by the opposite party.
• There is no contra evidence from the side of the opposite party to discredit the evidence adduced by the complainant and hence the evidence adduced by the complainant stands unchallenged.
• In the absence of any contra evidence from the side of the opposite party we accept the evidence adduced by the complainant.
• There is deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite party. It is also evident from the evidence adduced by the complainant that the complainant has suffered mental agony and financial loss due to the act of the opposite party.
• As the mental agony and financial loss to the complainant was caused due to the deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on the part of the opposite party, we find that the opposite party is liable to compensate the loss sustained by the complainant.

Directions

• The opposite party is directed to refund a sum of Rs 8.52 lakh along with Rs 1 lakh as compensation and Rs 3,000 being the cost of this proceedings to the complainant within 30 days.