Jump to content

FIITJEE

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jasonx5 (talk | contribs) at 08:47, 27 February 2019 (Filled in 0 bare reference(s) with reFill (Fixed bad style of reference)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

FIITJEE:Forum For IIT-JEE
Formation1992[1]
FounderD.K. Goel[1]
TypeCram school[2]
HeadquartersFIITJEE House, 29-A, Kalu Sarai, Sarvyapriya Vihar, New Delhi, India
Region served
India
ServicesCram school for IIT-JEE and various engineering entrance examination
Official language
English,Hindi
Websitehttp://www.fiitjee.com

FIITJEE is a cram school[2] founded by D.K. Goel[1] .It offers programs for students from grade 6 to 12 for JEE (previously AIEEE and IITJEE), SAT, NTSE, KVPY, JSTSE and various other examinations.[3]

A controversy: 2009 AIEEE and IIT-JEE topper

The 2009 IIT-JEE topper Nitin Jain who trained for his exams at FIITJEE said that he had been coerced into writing a letter of recommendation which the coaching institute had published in their advertisements. The institute opened a website where they published answers in the name of Jain. He and his father accused FIITJEE and another coaching institute, "Aakash" for "misusing" Jain's name "for commercial interest". Jain clarified that he had never attended the Aakash Institute. The Union Ministry for Human Resource Development referred the matter for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation. FIITJEE denied the allegations.[4][5]

Jain later wrote in his book The Secret of My Success that he was "subtly pressurised" and "cajoled into writing the letter and most of it was not true." FIITJEE moved the Delhi High Court claiming that parts of the book were "defamatory, offensive and fallacious" and sought a permanent injunction on the book's publication. The High Court dismissed the appeal citing that the institute needed to prove that what the writer had published in his book was wrong. Jain and his father said that Nitin had received lesser amount under the institute's Talent Reward Exam than what the institute claimed and that too after several rounds of the institute's office.[6] The Delhi High Court in 2011 restrained FIITJEE from using Jain's name and photograph in their advertisements. Jain later sought Rs. 5.85 crore in damage from FIITJEE for breaching his and his family's right to privacy, using his photos and videos "for luring students for admission" and for allegedly giving his photos to pornographic websites as well. The institute said that Jain was not entitled to any damages. In reply he moved the Delhi High Court in 2018 for settling the claims.[7]

FIITJEE has recently come under many legal cases in recent times mostly from its past students and employees.[8][9]

Refund cases

FIITJEE has faced several cases in Consumer Courts for not returning the fees paid by students when they quit the institute. In one of such cases in April 2017, the Hyderabad district consumer court directed FIITJEE to return 75% of the fees paid upfront and pay compensation of 1 lakh to parents.[10]

A Nagpur district forum ruled out that the coaching classes taking advance fees was a discrepancy and directed FIITJEE to refund Rs. 75,000 to a student who had enrolled in a 4-year program but left it following the lack of discipline and a biology teacher for two years.[11]

In one of such case complainants Lalit Garg and his 16-year-old daughter Nilisha of sector 15 Panchkula that they had joined Sri Guru Gobind School in sector 26 Chandigarh by paying complete fees(Rs 1.18 lakh) for two years class room integrated program conducted by Cram School FIITJEE.[12]

Within first 17 days Nilisha dropped out of the cram school as she was not able to understand properly in the class and claimed that the teachers at FIITJEE were biased and favored 3-4 students and did not extend support to Nilisha.[12][13]

The consumer forum, after hearing to the both parties, held that, "It will be unfair, if the institute be permitted to grab the hard earned money of complainant, who has attended the classes only for 17 days. The Coaching Center have adopted dubious means for collecting huge amount to get themselves enrich, which is highly condemnable."[12]

Cram School FIITJEE was directed to refund fees- Rs1.18lakh- along with 12% interest per year from the date of enrolling to the date she left the Cram School. FIITJEE also directed to pay Rs 10,000 as litigation cost.[13]

The forum, in its judgement, held, "The students without having any special coaching at FIITJEE and just after getting education in a Government/Public Schools more often got laurels in their field by achieving top positions in the competitive examinations for admission to institutions of higher learning as well as for jobs in Civil Services, Military, Engineering, Medical etc. The FIITJEE or alike coaching centers are not only the ultimate way of achieving success. This is nothing but is only because of their high end luxurious advertisements in the media/newspapers."[13]

Taking note of the suicides in coaching institutes Forum held that "recently a number of suicide casualties by the children, who are undergoing such like Coaching Classes in various Coaching Centres in the country has come up in the newspapers, which reflect a sorry state of affairs about the way of teaching in the Coaching Centres." [12]

Paradise Papers

On November 6, 2017 the Paradise Papers revealed that 19,52,907 shares of FIITJEE valued at Rs. 36 crore were sold by QLearn company of Mauritius to Mumbai's Ambit Group in July 2015. QLearn is a subsidiary of Qatari firm Qinvest and the Ambit Group is one of the investor's in it.[14]

Dispute with IIT Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) had moved to court to get the FIITJEE branding removed from IIT-DELHI Metro Station, which, according to IIT-Delhi could mislead students into thinking that IIT Delhi and FIITJEE has a tie-up thus boosting enrollment in a cram school which IITs strongly discourages.[15] Signage installed at the station has named the station FIITJEE IIT, coupling the two names.[16] Delhi High Court decided in favor of IIT and ordered to remove FIITJEE branding from the IIT Metro Station. The new signage displays only the institute's name along with that of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). [17]

On this the director of IIT Delhi V. Ramgopal Rao quoted to media "We never wanted the IIT’s name to be associated with any cram school holding commercial interests.We are happy the issue has been settled, BIS is a good brand to be associated with as it aligns with the image of our institute. Both (IITD and BIS) set standards in their own domains,” said Rao. The BIS is the national standards body of India working under the aegis of ministry of consumer affairs, food & public distribution."[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c "D. K. Goel: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". Bloomberg LP (US). Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  2. ^ a b Diksha, Madhok (11 September 2012). "Cram schools boom widens India's class divide". Reuters. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  3. ^ "FIITJEE Talent Reward Exam". The Hindu. 21 December 2014. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 27 February 2019.
  4. ^ Mohanty, Basant Kumar (15 August 2010). "Topper finger at IIT coaching centres". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  5. ^ Mukul, Akshaya (10 July 2010). "CBI to probe 'credit' tussle over IIT topper". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  6. ^ Anand, Utkarsh (2 June 2010). "Institute red-faced as HC won't ban IIT topper's book". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  7. ^ Press Trust of India (1 May 2018). "IIT topper's suit for Rs 5cr damages: HC pulls up FIIT-JEE". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  8. ^ "Consumer forum to FIITJEE: Stop 'unfair trade practices,' return 50 per cent tuition fee to students". India Today. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  9. ^ "FIITJEE advertisement: Defamation case filed, court records statement of complainant". The Indian Express. Retrieved 19 March 2017.
  10. ^ Vatyami, Nirupa (3 April 2017). "Return student's fee, FIITJEE told". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  11. ^ Ganjapure, Vaibhav; Nelarwar, Mohnish (21 April 2017). "Consumer Forum asks FIIT JEE to refund Rs75,000 to student". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  12. ^ a b c d "Forum raps private engineering coaching institute, directs it to refund Rs 1.28 lakh to Panchkula student". 10 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  13. ^ a b c "FIITJEE asked to refund fees - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  14. ^ Yadav, Shyamlal (6 November 2017). "Paradise Papers: Qatar firm invested in coaching giant FIITJEE via Mauritius". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
  15. ^ "IIT moves HC on metro station naming - Times of India ►". The Times of India. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  16. ^ "'FIITJEE at Metro station tarnishing image': Delhi IIT moves HC". The Indian Express. 28 May 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  17. ^ a b "How a premier IIT fought and won a brand war at Delhi's metro station". Economic Times. 4 December 2018.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=FIITJEE&oldid=885320110"