The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has imposed a fine of Rs 11 lakh on coaching institute Vision IAS for publishing misleading advertisements related to its students’ performance in the UPSC
Civil Services Examination. This is the first case in which a penalty has been imposed for a repeat offence under consumer protection laws.
According to the CCPA, Vision IAS, officially registered as AjayVision Education Pvt Ltd, misled students and parents by not clearly stating which courses successful UPSC candidates had actually taken. The authority found that the institute created the impression that top rankers had enrolled in its costly foundation courses, which run into lakhs of rupees, even though this was not the case.
“This is the first case of penalty on the second offence,” CCPA Chief Commissioner and Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare told PTI. She added that despite earlier warnings and regulatory action, the institute continued to make similar claims in later advertisements, showing a lack of compliance with the rules.
Vision IAS advertisements prominently claimed achievements such as “7 in Top 10 & 79 in Top 100 selections in CSE 2023” and “39 in Top 50 selections in CSE 2022,” along with photographs, names and ranks of successful candidates.
However, a CCPA investigation revealed that out of more than 119 candidates highlighted for UPSC CSE 2022 and 2023, only three had enrolled in the institute’s foundation courses. The remaining candidates had used limited services such as test series, Abhyaas tests, or mock interview programmes.
The authority also pointed out that while Vision IAS clearly mentioned that Shubham Kumar, AIR 1 in UPSC CSE 2020, was a classroom foundation course student, it did not provide similar clarity for other candidates shown in the same advertisements. This, the CCPA said, gave a misleading impression that all featured candidates were part of the same premium programme.
Considering the repeated nature of the violation, the CCPA treated the case as a subsequent offence and imposed a higher penalty in the interest of protecting consumers. The authority said that such selective disclosure misleads aspirants into believing the institute was responsible for candidates’ success at all stages of the examination, which amounts to a misleading advertisement under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.
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The CCPA also noted that websites, unlike print advertisements, remain accessible for long periods and are a key source of information for aspirants researching coaching institutes. Making promotional claims without proper authorisation or consent from students further added to the misleading nature of the advertisements.
In a statement, the authority said that in highly competitive exams like the UPSC Civil Services Examination, where lakhs of aspirants invest significant time, effort and money, incomplete and selective information creates false expectations about results and the effectiveness of coaching services.
So far, the CCPA has issued 57 notices to coaching institutes over misleading advertisements and unfair trade practices. Penalties totalling Rs 1.09 crore have been imposed on 28 institutes, along with directions to stop such claims. The authority has stressed that all coaching institutes must ensure transparency and honesty in their advertisements so that students can make informed academic choices.
