Chandigarh: Commission dismisses appeal of air hostess training institute

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, March 31

The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has dismissed an appeal of Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training, Sector 34-A, Chandigarh, against an order of the District Consumer Forum, which directed the institute to refund Rs 1.54 lakh fee to a girl student who left the institute within one month after joining the classes.

The forum had also directed the institute to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 for causing mental agony and harassment and Rs 10,000 as costs of litigation.

In a complaint filed before the forum, Tanya, a resident of Ambala Cantonment, said she approached the opposite party (institute) for an air hostess course. She took the admission to the institute in Frankfinn Diploma in Aviation, Hospitality and Travel Management for a period of one year and paid Rs 1.54 lakh on June 22, 2016 after obtaining an education loan from Punjab National Bank, Ambala Cantonment.

She attended the classes for around one month. One day, a teacher at the institute saw a burn mark on the complainant’s right wrist. The teacher told her that with that mark, she could not be selected for the post of air hostess and she would not have any benefit of doing the said course. Tanya requested the institute to refund the fee, but to no avail.

Denying the charges, the opposite party (OP) said in the agreement it was clearly mentioned that there should not be any mark and/or scar on the face/forearm/neck/legs (uncovered area) for cabin crew job in airlines. Thus, the complainant was fully aware at the time of taking admission that she was not eligible for cabin crew job. She was only eligible for aviation ground staff, hospitality, travel management and customer service sector job.

After hearing the arguments, the District Forum held the institute guilty of deficiency of services and directed it to refund the fee. The institute challenged the order before the state commission.

The state commission, consisting of Justice Raj Shekhar Attri, president, and Rajesh K Arya, member, dismissed the appeal of the institute. The commission said the act of the appellants in the first instance receiving fee from students and thereafter binding them under one-sided terms and conditions qua non-refund of fee, etc., was nothing but an unfair trade practice on their part, which needed to be deprecated. Therefore, in our considered view, the district forum had rightly allowed the complaint.