DISTRICT CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL FORUM-II

Udyog Sadan, C-22 & 23, Qutub Institutional Area

(Behind Qutub Hotel), New Delhi-110016

Case No.79/2012

Ms. Shilpa Sharma

D/o Sh. R.C. Sharma

R/o Flat No.186-A, 3^rd Floor,

Arjun Nagar, Near Safdarjung Enclave,

New Delhi-110029                                              ….Complainant

Versus

NIIT Ltd.

through

Ms. Geetica Sundriyal

Territory Head

D-5, South Extension,

New Delhi-110049

also at:

Director- NIIT

Registered Office

B-234, Okhla Phase-I

New Delhi-110020

Director-NIIT

Corporate Office

House-8, Balaji Estate,

Sudarshan Munjal Marg,

Kalkaji, New Delhi-110019                                    ….Opposite Party

                                                          Date of Institution  : 07.03.12    Date of Order        :  04.09.17

Coram:

Sh. N.K. Goel, President

Ms. Naina Bakshi, Member

ORDER

The case of the complainant, in nutshell, is that she was a student of OP No.1 at South Extension, New Delhi and her ID No. was S090020101308 and she took admission for three years GNIIT program in the year 2008. She got admission on 28.06.08 and paid Rs.106064/- vide various receipts till 19.07.10.  The OP had informed her father that she was doing very well in the study and getting more than 75% marks. When she asked for the mark sheet it was told by the OP No.1 that the composite mark sheet will be given only after completion of the course. She completed two years course on 20.07.2011 and she was attending the classes continuously. She lost interest in the said program as the OP’s study method was outdated and they were not taking any interest. She got admission in MBA from Bharti Vidyapeeth at Pune and, hence, she informed the OP in writing on 20.07.11 that she is not in a position to continue with a 3^rd year GNIIT program and requited the OP to issue a certificate for two years as agreed by the OP at the time of giving admission. Inspite of receiving letter dated 20.07.11 OP has not issued any certificate to her in this regard.  She again requested the OP on 06.09.2011 for issuing the certificate for two years to which she was legally entitled. The OP vide letter dated 29.09.11 deviated from the contents of the prospectus given to her at the time of admission. She informed the Technical Head of the OP that she was not interested in view of the poor quality of the education/training imparted by the OP. Instead OP telephonically informed her father that she is doing very well in her studies. The contention of the OP is incorrect that she had requested to repeat T-1, SMB Module Test to clear the test with the minimum 50% marks.  The OP called her at South Extn. Centre and asked her to write a letter for re-examination so that they could award an NIIT certificate to her.  Once again she sent a letter dated 29.10.11 to the OP to redress her grievance by issuing the certificate but the OP deliberately failed to redress the grievance and compelled her to approach this Forum.   Complainant has prayed that the OP be directed to issue certificate of ANIIT, pay Rs.50,000/- towards compensation  for causing mental harassment and or in alternative to refund the entire consideration of Rs.1,06,064/- alongwith interest @ 12%.

OP in the written statement has inter-alia stated that the complainant is not entitled for any relief as the student who takes admission with the OP is bound by the rules and regulations mentioned in the student Hand Book. Rule 2 of the student Hand Book deals with ‘Student Appraisals’ and Rule 3 regarding “Certification”.  The relevant extract of Rule 2 is reproduced hereunder:-

“2.     Student Appraisals

2.2    Students are expected to participate in the appraisal instrument in the manner specified. These are particularly useful for students to assess their strength and weaknesses.

2.6    For all appraisals, results are put up on the student notice board within a day and for a minimum of 7 days. Student can also access www.niitstudent.com to know the appraisal scores. Students are expected to appraise themselves of their performance.

2.7    A student’s overall performance in a semester is based on the weighted aggregate of the score in each of the scheduled student appraisal instruments. The weightage structure is as defined from time to time.   

2.8    For successful completion of a semester, the student must have obtained a Semester Weighted Average Performance (SWAP) of atleast 50%.  It is the responsibility of the students to get 50% as SWAP.”

According to above rules the student should obtain a SWAP of atleast 50% for successful completion of the semester/course. The complainant had attended classes of GNIIT course uptill 3 semesters and failed to clear appraisal instrument of these three semesters so as to entitle her for even HND certification rather than ANIIT certification and as such she is not entitled for certificate. The complainant is not entitled for any refund of the course fee of Rs.106064/- as claimed.  As she has attended the classes of GNIIT course upto 3 semesters and also appeared in the examination and received course material from the OP, therefore as per Rule 8 of the student Hand Book the complainant is not entitled for refund of the fees. It is submitted that the complainant is guilty for her own omission, commission, negligence and fault. The complainant took admission in NIIT flagship course called GNIIT in the year 2008. The said program consisted of four semesters of classroom teaching and two semesters of training called professional practices. The course comprised among others, training on various softwares which are owned by the third party organization like Oracle, Microsoft, SAS etc. She attended the classes upto 3 semesters and failed to clear appraisal instruments of these three semesters. The exams were conducted online. The following is the status of the complainant’s examination which she has undertaken:-

The complainant has submitted the supplementary request form on 07.02.09 for MTE1.  The complainant informed them that she was busy with her MBA classes in weekdays and accordingly the complainant was offered revision classes on Sunday so that she could appear and clear the MT’s. She attended the revision classes with the faculty named Pradeep Kumar and appeared for second model test of second semester i.e. TI SMB on 04.09.11 and scored just 24% marks.  It is submitted that during last 5 years about 19048 students enrolled in GNIIT course have been successfully placed in the IT industry and they are gainfully employed.  It is denied that the complainant asked for the mark sheet and she was told that the mark sheet will be given after completion of the course and it is a cooked story and big lie. The every student’s information is made available to the student. Student get accessed to the portal www.niitstudent.com wherein  each and every informations pertaining to education delivery, examination and appraisal (marksheet) are readily available to the student round the clock as per Rule 2.6 of the Student Hand Book. It is submitted that the complainant has failed to clear even a single semester appraisal instrument despite having twice availing the option to appear in supplementary examination.   Denying any deficiency in service, OP has prayed for dismissal of the complaint.

Complainant has filed a rejoinder. She has not specifically denied the averments made in the reply of the OP.

Complainant has filed her own affidavit in evidence as well as affidavit of his father. On the other hand, affidavit of Sh. Rajiv Razdan, National Channel Development and Business Audit Manager has been filed in evidence on behalf of the OP.

Written arguments have been filed on behalf of the parties.

We have heard the arguments on behalf of the Complainant and have also gone through the file very carefully.

It is not in dispute that the complainant took the admission with the OP for three years and after completion of two years she got admission in MBA and requested the OP to issue the certificate and refund of the money.   

There is no material on the record to show that the complainant had obtained 50% SWAP in the 4 semesters attended by her and for which she had been given the examination. Therefore,  there is no material on the record to show that the complainant had become entitled to get any certificate or diploma from the OP for completing her two years course out of 3 years course. Onus to prove this fact was on the complainant but the complainant has failed to prove this issue. Even otherwise, we are of the considered opinion that after attending the classes held by the OP for two years, it did not lie in the mouth of the complainant to say in the 3^rd year that the quality of the education provided by the OP was not upto the mark and had degraded. If this issue is left to be decided by a student, then a hotchpotch like situation will arise and the students would become judges/adjudicators to decide the fate of an educational institution/university during the duration of the course. Therefore, in our considered opinion, even otherwise the complainant was not justified in asking the OP to  issue her a  certificate of ANIIT or refund of the entire fee.  When there is no material on the record to show that the complainant had  obtained 50% SWAP successfully either in the main examination or in the supplementary examination, how she could claim that she had become entitled to the issuance of the said certificate to her. Therefore, we hold that the complainant has failed to prove any deficiency in service on the part of the OP.

In view of the above discussion, we do not find any merit in the complaint and dismiss it with no order as to costs.

Let a copy of this order be sent to the parties as per regulation 21 of the Consumer Protection Regulations.  Thereafter file be consigned to record room.

Announced on 04.09.17.