Indian edtech company Byju’s and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan have been ordered to compensate a woman who had enrolled for the Indian Administration Service (IAS) coaching course but was never provided with the promised services. The order was issued by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
The complainant, Priyanka Dixit, paid INR 1.08 lakh in fees for the course in 2021 after being influenced by Byju’s advertisement featuring Khan. Despite assurances, the course never began, and Dixit never received a refund.
The commission directed Byju’s to return the full course fees to Dixit along with 12% annual interest. Both Khan and Byju’s were asked to pay INR 5,000 as litigation cost and INR 50,000 as compensation and mental agony. The commission made it clear that the local manager of Byju’s in Indore and Khan would have to pay the amount ‘jointly or severally’ to Dixit.
The commission held that the woman was induced to take admission in Byju’s coaching course by misleading online advertisements on behalf of the company. The commission said that despite assurances of a refund, no coaching facility was provided, and the fee was not returned, amounting to fraudulent behavior and an unfair trade practice.
Dixit’s lawyer, Suresh Kanga, explained that consumers in India have the right to sue even those advertising the product. Byju’s has already faced scrutiny from the Enforcement Directorate, India’s prime economic intelligence agency, for allegedly remitting abroad over INR 9,700 crore of the INR 28,000 crore it received as Foreign Direct Investment since 2011.
Searches were conducted at the premises of a Bengaluru firm linked to Byju’s on Saturday. Byju’s has termed it a routine inquiry and said that it has provided all information requested and is committed to upholding the highest standards of compliance and ethics.
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