CCPA slaps Rs 7 lakh fine on Vajiram & Ravi for misleading UPSC success claims

The Central Consumer Protection Authority has imposed a penalty of Rs 7 lakh on Vajiram and Ravi IAS Study Centre for publishing misleading advertisements, which claimed credit for candidates who cleared the UPSC Civil Services Examination 2023, most of whom had enrolled only in its free interview guidance programme.

The regulator found that a majority of candidates cited in the institute's advertisements had enrolled only in its free interview guidance programme (IGP), a short-duration course that begins only after candidates have already cleared Prelims and Mains on their own.

The institute had claimed on its official website, shortly after results were declared, that "8 Rank Holders in the Top 10" and "37 Rank Holders in the Top 50" are from Vajiram & Ravi.

It had further asserted that "every year, more than 30 per cent of the officers selected through UPSC Civil Services Examination are students of Vajiram & Ravi," the regulator said in a statement.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA), headed by Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, found that 7 out of the 8 top-10 rankers cited in the advertisement, and 29 out of the 37 top-50 rankers, had enrolled only in the free IGP, a fact the institute had not disclosed.

The concealment was not limited to 2023. Data examined by the CCPA revealed a consistent pattern of non-disclosure across multiple years.

In 2021, 86.36 per cent of the institute's successful candidates had enrolled only in the IGP; in 2022, the figure was 78.31 per cent; in 2023, it rose sharply to 97.56 per cent; and in 2024, it stood at 71.69 per cent. In none of these years was this information disclosed on the institute's official website.

The CCPA noted that the IGP is a short-duration programme that commences only after a candidate has independently cleared both the Preliminary and Mains stages of the UPSC CSE, two highly competitive stages at which the institute had no academic contribution whatsoever.

By prominently featuring such candidates alongside advertisements for comprehensive paid coaching programmes, without any disclosure of the specific course opted for, the institute created a misleading impression that these candidates were products of its full-length coaching.

The authority held that non-disclosure of the specific courses opted for by successful candidates, whether full-length classroom programmes, optional subject coaching, test series, or a free interview guidance programme, amounts to a misleading advertisement under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

The conduct was found to fall squarely within Section 2(28)(iv) of the Act, which prohibits deliberate concealment of important information, and was further held to violate Section 2(9), which guarantees consumers the right to be informed.

The order against Vajiram & Ravi is part of a wider regulatory offensive against the coaching sector.

The CCPA has so far issued more than 60 notices to coaching institutes for misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices, and has imposed cumulative penalties exceeding Rs 1.46 crore on institutes offering coaching for examinations, including UPSC CSE, IIT-JEE, NEET, and RBI, among others.
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