School directed to refund fees on cancellation of admission

A consumer forum in Pune has ordered a school to refund the entire fees upon cancellation of admission to the father of two children besides paying a compensation of Rs 10,000.

"The academic year had not started and objection raised by the opponent (school) for not refunding the amount appears to be illogical," said the bench of District Consumer Forum, headed by its President V P Utpat recently.

According to complainant Manoj Saraf, he approached the Pune-based Vibgyor High School in April 2011 for enrolling his two children. As his job was transferable, the school, he said, assured him that it has branches in many parts of the state and his children can be transferred to any of those schools.

Saraf then paid Rs 92,000 toward fees. He said that when the fees were paid, the admission was yet to be confirmed as the school-leaving certificates and address proof were not submitted. The classes were to start from June 2011.

A few days later, Saraf was transferred to Mumbai, but the school, he alleged, refused to transfer the children, so he sought cancellation of admissions.

The school refunded him only Rs 52,000, forfeiting the balance, so he moved Consumer Forum.

The school, in its reply, denied that it had promised transfer of kids to other branches and said Rs 40,000 was a non-refundable component of fees.

But not accepting this defence, the forum noted that admission had not been finalised when he sought cancellation. "Unless those documents (school leaving certificate, etc) were produced it cannot be said that process of admission was complete," the forum said, directing the school to return the balance amount.

It also asked the school to pay Saraf additionally Rs 10,000 as a compensation and Rs 1,000 as a cost.