Educational service providers must fulfill contractual obligations or refund fees to students if services are not adequately delivered, establishing consumer rights against unfair practices.

ORDER BY AMRINDER SINGH SIDHU, M.A.(Eng.),LLM,PRESIDENT

1] The complainant has filed the present complaint pleading that OP No.2 being consultant of Byjus and employee of the OPs contacted the complainant on 05.11.2022 and convinced for purchase of their study material for his daughter Prisha Tayal who was in 9 th class at that time and assured that if the complainant enrolled his daughter with them they will provide the study material for 9 th, 10 th, 11 th and 12 th classes also. She also assured that their institute will provide the tablet to the student for the live classes and the student will be prepared for NEET exam also. She also offered a discounted amount of Rs.1,68,000/- for the whole course of four years i.e. from 9 th class to 12 th class. The demo was given by another employee of OPs namely Ms.Archana Thakur who was also present with OP No.2 being Product Manager. Ms.Archana Thakur alongwith OP No.2 offered further discounted rates and told if the complainant books their product then the complainant has to pay Rs.1,20,000/- instead of Rs.1,68,000/- to be paid in two years installment. The complainant booked the product of OPs and paid a sum of Rs.15,000/- in advance on 08.11.2022 (Annexure C-1). OP No.2 processed the application and after some time she told the complainant that installment application has been rejected due to some technical issue and told to initiate one time payment for the said course. Thereafter the complainant received a mail (Annexure C-2) from OP No.2 in which she given the details of whole course and offered the complainant Rs.80,000/- i.e. 9 th to 12 th classes with NEET preparations, one tablet of Samsung and live classes for the whole 4 years. The complainant on 09.11.2022 deposited Rs.65,000/- as balance money. After processing the application, OP No.2 dispatched only 10 th and 11 th class SD Card instead of 9 th class, without tablet and books. On 14.11.2022 the complainant received only two SD cards without tablet and books. Thereafter the complainant contacted OP No.2 telephonically and also sent messages but she did not pay any heed to the request of the complainant and linger on the matter. On 15.11.2022, the complainant mailed for the cancellation of course and refund of money (Annexure C-3). It is pleaded that in the month of January, the OPs sent a Samsung Tablet but refused to start live classes and the tablet proved toy in absence of live classes. Due to the said conduct of the OPs, the daughter of the complainant suffered an irreparable loss in her studies. The OPs did not fulfill their commitment and in this way the studies of the daughter of the complainant could not be completed. The complainant time and again contacted the authorized officials of OPs to resolve the issue but to no avail. Alleging the aforesaid act of OPs amounts to deficiency in service and unfair trade practice on their part. Hence, the present consumer complaint has been filed by the complainant with a prayer to direct the OPs to refund Rs.80,000/- towards the amount paid; Rs.30,00,000/- on account of loss of studies; compensation of Rs.10,00,000/- for mental agony & harassment and Rs.21,000/- as cost of litigation expenses.

2] The OPs appeared before this Commission through their counsel and filed their written version to the complaint. The OPs in their written version have stated that after receipt of registration fee/down payment, OP company has dispatched the study material and tab at the address of the complainant and the same has been delivered to him and the products and study material are in possession of the complainant. The OPs offers a 15 day trial period as per Clause 17 of the Order Summary to its customers to understand and analyze the product and services and make informed choice to either accept the service or reject it. In case customer raises a request for cancellation of the product subscription, the OP Company refunds subscription fee received from such customer and cancels the subsc