Institute told to pay Rs 3.50 lakh to student

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 17

Having enrolled for BSc (Multimedia) at a city-based multimedia institute, a Patiala resident was offered diploma certificate at the end of two years. Not only this, the fee was taken for BSc course for two years by the institute and never was any exam conducted during the whole two years. The student thus approached consumer forum, which has asked the institute to pay up Rs 3.50 lakh now.

As per the complaint of Shivam Malhotra, he had enrolled for three-year BSc multimedia at the OXL School of Multimedia in July 2013. He paid Rs 2.90 lakh fee in instalments till November 2015 to the institute. No annual exam was conducted by the institute. After pressure from students, they were given diploma certificates in December.

Soon after, the institute closed down and shifted to Sector 34 where another institute in the name of Orane Institute of Beauty and Wellness was being run. There, Malhotra was assured that the degree will be awarded and examination will be taken, but at the same time it stopped taking classes and closed the institute. In April 2016, the complainant met the staff and demanded refund of the fee charged, but in vain. He thus approached the forum.

In its reply, the institute stated that various degree courses with the help of National Coordinators Mindtrek Edu Tech Private Limited, who had a MoU with Karnataka State Open University (KSOU), were being run by them. Their responsibility was only to complete various courses and the degree was to be issued by KSOU to their National Coordinator (Mindtrek), Gurgaon, which was to further issue the same to the institute.

It also stated that in September 2015, KSOU issued a notification withdrawing all programmes. OXL issued a legal notice dated January 2016 to the coordinator (Mindtrek) to provide the pending degrees and also to Karnataka State Open University in February and March 2016. However, they are yet to get the same and they have also filed a complaint with the Chandigarh Police.

‘Institute ruined future of student’

The forum took a strict note of the institute charging fee for two years but not conducting examinations. Their act ‘ruined the future of the complainant’ as he would not get admission anywhere and will have to explain the ‘gap period’. It added that ‘they cannot be allowed to play with the career of students’. The institute was thus directed to immediately refund the entire fee i.e. Rs 2.90 lakh to the complainant and to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for mental agony and harassment along with Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation.