CCPA slaps Rs 15 lakh penalty on two coaching institutes for misleading ads on JEE, NEET results

New Delhi: Consumer protection regulator CCPA has imposed penalties of Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh on Motion Education Pvt Ltd and Career Line Coaching (CLC), Sikar, respectively, for publishing misleading advertisements about JEE and NEET results.

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The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) said that the advertisements published by the two institutes concealed crucial information about the courses attended by students whose success stories were prominently featured in their promotional material.

The orders, passed by CCPA Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare and Commissioner Anupam Mishra, found both institutes in violation of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 — guilty of unfair trade practices and infringement of consumer rights, a consumer affairs ministry statement said on Friday.

Motion Education had advertised a 91.2 percent NEET qualification rate and a 51.02 percent IIT-JEE Advanced pass rate, plastering successful candidates' names, photographs and ranks across its website, YouTube channel, Instagram account and newspaper advertisements — all while promoting paid programmes such as its 'Full Time Classroom Programme', 'Residential Programme', 'Nurture Batch', 'Enthuse Batch', and 'Dropper/Leader Batch',

The investigation revealed that a majority of the featured students had enrolled in "I-Eklavya (Online)" — a course offered free of cost to selected students through a test and interview process. None of the advertisements mentioned this.

Investigators also found that some students were enrolled with the institute only after their examinations had concluded, yet their achievements were attributed to the institute's coaching. Consent from students or their guardians had not been obtained for the use of their names and photographs.

Career Line Coaching (CLC), meanwhile, claimed "1650+ CLCians in MBBS, IIT & Others" — a figure the institute described in written submissions as cumulative selections since 1996, only to claim during the hearing that it referred to 2024 alone.

The CCPA found this contradiction sufficient to render the claim unsubstantiated. Several students featured in CLC's advertisements had, in fact, enrolled only for test series courses — a detail the institute chose not to disclose.

The CCPA held that concealing whether a successful candidate attended a full-time classroom programme, an online course, a crash course, or merely a test series constitutes a misleading advertisement under Section 2(28) and an unfair trade practice under Section 2(47) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Both institutes were directed to immediately withdraw the offending advertisements and ensure full disclosure in future promotional material. Both have since appealed the orders before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).

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The action is part of a wider regulatory push. The CCPA has so far issued more than 60 notices to coaching institutes and imposed penalties totalling over Rs 1.39 crore on 31 institutes — covering UPSC, IIT-JEE, NEET, RBI and other competitive exam coaching.

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