'Aakash' asked to refund fee, as girl student rejects dad's plea to join course

HYDERABAD: Aakash Institute in Himayat Nagar was asked to refund the fee of Rs 42,660 to a person who had failed to convince his daughter to attend the classes. The institute was asked to pay an additional Rs 15,000 as compensation for the inconvenience caused to the complainant.

The complainant had approached Aakash institute for admission of her daughter into an integrated two-year classroom course for NEET and paid Rs 43,660 as the admission fee. After being enrolled, the complainant's daughter neither attended the classes nor logged into the online course as she was not interested.

The complainant failed to convince his daughter to attend the classes and hence requested a refund of the fee. However, the institute did not respond to the pleas. Therefore, the complainant filed a case against the institute seeking refund of his hard-earned money.

Aakash institute, in its defence, said that, after taking admission to the institute, the student chose not to attend the classes. The institute agreed to refund Rs 25,960 as per the refund policy agreed by the complainant during admission.

The court in its verdict said that the clauses were totally one-sided and against the interest of the complainant. Though the complainant's daughter had not logged in for the online classes, refusing to refund the fee is a deficiency of service and unfair trade practice, said the court.