BEFORE THE DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES
REDRESSAL FORUM, JALANDHAR.
Complaint No.531 of 2015
Date of Instt. 17.12.2015
Date of Decision : 13.01.2016
Sukriti Nigam aged about 28 years D/o Sanjeev Kumar Nigam R/o D-1, BSNL Colony, JP Nagar, Jalandhar.
..........Complainant Versus
1. British Council Division, British Deputy High Commission, C-515, 5th Floor, Elante Office Block, 178-A, Industrial and Business Park, Phase-I, Chadigarh-160002, through its Manager/Incharge etc.
2. British Council Division, British High Commission, 17, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi-110001 through its Manager/Incharge etc.
3. British Council Division, British Deputy High Commission, 901, 9th Floor, Tower-1, 1 India Bulls Centre, 841, Senapati Bapat Marg, Elphinstone Road, Mumbai-400013 through its Manager/Incharge etc.
.........Opposite parties.
Complaint Under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act.
Before: Sh.Ashwani Kumar Mehta (President)
Ms. Jyotsna Thatai (Member)
Sh.Parminder Sharma (Member)
Present: Sh.APS Pathania Adv., counsel for complainant.
Order
Jyotsna Thatai (Member)
1. Complainant Sukriti Nigam filed the present complaint against British Council Division etc (opposite parties) under section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act on the allegations of deficiency and negligence in service on the part of OPs and for directing the OPs to pay Rs.2,00,000/- as compensation, Rs.10,400/- for refund of examination fee and Rs.15,000/- for litigation expenses.
2. The case of the complainant in brief is that the Ops are dealing with IELTS exams and the Ops have their office in all the major cities in India for above said purpose and the complainant was interested to clear the said exams and accordingly the office situated at New Delhi was requested by the complainant to make the necessary arrangements and accordingly the complainant as per assurances and representation of the official of Ops was allured to deposit the payment of Rs.10,400/- which was transferred through the bank account No.63015450 of Canara bank and the same was transferred in the account of Ops being the necessary charges as told by them for the purpose of IELTS examination fee; that there is specific provision and arrangement which is offered by the Ops for the postponement of IELTS examination and its centre and accordingly the complainant requested the Ops No.2 & 3 to reschedule her examination centre and date from New Delhi to Banglore on 17.3.2015. The said request was made by the complainant five weeks before the date of examination and the acknowledgment of receipt was received on the same day through the auto reply in the mail box of the complainant; that on 19.3.2015 the Ops replied and intimated that it is a paid process for change of examination centre and asked the complainant for giving her final consent and the complainant accordingly gave the consent on the same day, thereafter but no response was received from the Ops; that the complainant gave numerous reminders and calls especially through emails on27.3.2015 and on 3.4.2015 and requested the Ops to intimate her amount to be paid and the necessary formalities to be completed; that in response to those representations of the complainant, the Ops gave a reply on 5.4.2015 and intimated the complainant that the April month was already booked and they further apprised the complainant that she could apply for such change only five weeks prior to the examination date, to which the complainant had already done. The Ops for the reasons best known to them, committed in-ordinate delay and gave the response to the request of the complainant after two weeks of her first request. The Ops also did not intimate about the formalities to which they were required to furnish well within time to the complainant but those formalities were not furnished nor the complainant was apprised well within the reasonable time, even in the mail dated 5.4.2015, the Ops did not disclose such formalities to the complainant. Thereafter the Ops sent a form for postponement/cancellation of exam which was received by the complainant on 21.4.2015 i.e. 4 days prior to the examination. The duly filled form requesting the Ops for the change of centre at Bangalore and date of examination as 4.7.2015 was sent to them on 23.5.2015 and the acknowledgment of the mail was received by the complainant on the same day; that on 9.6.2015 the complainant was asked to submit some documents i.e. one copy of passport and one death certificate of the grandfather of the complainant and the complainant was asked to submit these documents on or before 11.6.2015; that on 6.7.2015 the complainant was somehow able to arrange the death certificate of her grandfather and the copies of both the documents were submitted on the same day explaining that the copy of passport was available with her but the death certificate was got arranged from Kanpur, UP after a long time as per administrative formalities of the local authorities; that on 8.7.2015 the complainant received a mail from the Ops that her request for the postponement of the examination centre was declined on the ground that such request has to be made five weeks prior to the date of the examination and the complainant was apprised that she would have to apply afresh for appearing at the IELTS examination. The said intimation dated 8.7.2015 was totally illegal, unlawful and arbitrary. The Ops took very long time of 35 days of the examination, while responding to the request of the complainant for intimating for feeding the form of the examination centre inspite of giving numerous reminders to them. The Ops also did not inform to the complainant about the documents to be enclosed in the said intimation until 9.6.2015 i.e. more than six months after the date of examination. As such, the delay was not on the part of the complainant side and the Ops took long delay in specifying the procedure and formalities to be completed by the complainant. In this regard, the complainant requested the Ops that the death certificate of her grandfather, who had expired on 22.4.2015, could not be readily available with her and the procurement of the said certificate took some time. Int his regard, the complainant made the request to the Ops to reconsider her candidature for the IELTS examination, but the Ops did not consider the representation dated 17.6.2015 and the examination fees which was received by the Ops for an amount of Rs.10,400/- was also required to be refunded alongwith damages, penalties and interest accrued there upon. Hence complaint was filed.
3. We have carefully gone through the record and also heard the learned counsel for the complainant.
4. The complainant has filed present complaint under Consumer Protection Act against the OPs alleging deficiency of service and claiming refund of fee alongwith compensation and damages. Without going into merits of the complaint, we are of the opinion that education institutions are not service provider with regard to examination and student who takes an examination is not considered as a consumer. In Lovely Professional University Vs. Mohit Soni IV (2013) CPJ 133 (Har.). It has been held as under:-
“Education Boards & Universities are not 'Service Provider' and the complaints against them are not maintainable”.
5. In other judgment Maharshi Dayanand University Vs. Surjeet Kaur, 2010(2) CPC 696 S.C, it has been held as under:-
“Education is not a commodity. Educational institutions are not providing any kind of service, therefore, in matter of admission, fees etc, there can not be a question of deficiency of service. Such matters can not be entertained by the Consumer Forum under the Consumer Protection Act, 1986”.
6. This case is fully covered by the decisions rendered by Hon'ble Supreme Court cited above. Thus, the complainant does not fall within the definition of 'consumer'. Consequently, the complainant can not be termed as consumer under the provision of Consumer Protection Act.
5. In view of above discussion, the present complaint is dismissed being not maintainable. There is no order as to cost. Copy of the order be sent to the complainant free of costs under rules. File be consigned to the record room.
Dated Parminder Sharma Jyotsna Thatai Ashwani Kumar Mehta
13.01.2016 Member Member President
