New Delhi: Visit Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar or Karol Bagh, and a sea of garish posters, banners, and hoardings displaying pictures of successful IAS aspirants with names, and ranks in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination greets you.
These posters, put up by IAS coaching institutes, tout their successful track record, luring new students to enrol with them. Often enough, more than one coaching institute lay claim to successful candidates, with their pictures featuring in advertisements by different training centres.
This practice is set to change, as the process of finalizing guidelines for IAS coaching centres to prevent misleading advertisements nears completion, two people directly involved with the matter told Mint on the condition of anonymity.
Order soon
The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) will soon order these institutes to cease the practice of requiring aspirants to sign agreements at the time of enrolment, allowing the use of their credentials—such as photos, rank, video clips, or messages—claiming success in the prestigious UPSC examination, the people cited earlier said.
Under the new guidelines, aspirants will only be permitted to sign such contracts or agreements after successfully passing the exam, and only if they choose to do so, the first person said.
“These contracts will be valid for either six months or one year and will offer options regarding the use of the candidate’s credentials, including photos, name, rank, video messages, or addressing aspiring candidates in classes,” this person said.
Draft guidelines
The CCPA, under the ministry of consumer affairs, had in February released the draft guidelines for the “Prevention of Misleading Advertisement in Coaching Sector”.
The proposed guidelines, aimed at online and offline centres, will likely impact the IAS coaching business, which accounts for ₹3,000 crore in the overall annual coaching industry turnover of ₹58,088 crore. Delhi is considered a hub of coaching for UPSC’s civil services examinations.
“We will comply with whatever rules the government introduces,” said Vaishnavi Shankar, managing director, Shankar IAS, a coaching institute, over phone.
Mint was the first to report on 28 November 2023, that IAS coaching institutes would no longer be allowed to use photos of successful candidates to attract potential aspirants.
The government’s guidelines will help potential aspirants understand that the advertisements featuring successful candidates are based on paid agreements. It will allow them to make more informed decisions about the authenticity of coaching institutes’ claims, knowing that those being promoted have likely been compensated for the use of their credentials.
Better decision-making
This transparency will lead to better decision-making and reduce the chances of aspirants being misled by promotional tactics.
“The changes that the government is planning to bring are positive. When UPSC aspirants join a coaching institute, they are usually freshly graduated, typically in their early 20s. At this stage, they often have little understanding of the hidden terms and conditions set by these coaching institutes,” said Dr R.P. Beniwal, professor of psychiatry, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences and Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi.
“However, when they clear the examination and the same institute approaches them to use their credentials for advertising purposes, their understanding would have significantly evolved. By then, they are more aware and capable of deciding whether they want their credentials to be used and to what extent,” the doctor added.
Fee or free
According to the final guidelines being worked upon, successful candidates will have the option to enter into such pacts with coaching institutes, either by charging a fee or free of cost.
“Candidates will have the option to enter into such agreements either for a fee or free of charge, based on their preference. The guidelines are expected to be approved within the next week or two,” the second person said.
“At the time of joining coaching institutes, we don’t have much of a choice. The institutes even tell us that if we don’t sign the papers, our admission won’t be accepted. So, we sign them just for the sake of securing admission. The changes in norms will definitely help UPSC aspirants by giving them more control over their credentials and preventing exploitation,” said Payal Kumari (name changed on request), who is enrolled with a premier coaching institute in Karol Bagh, Delhi.
Section- 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act 2019 (CPA 2019) defines misleading advertisement as one that falsely describes a product or service or gives a false guarantee to mislead the consumers by concealing important information.
Queries sent to the consumer affairs ministry remained unanswered till press time.
Consent mandated
“This is a crucial step in protecting consumers, in this case, UPSC aspirants. It ensures that IAS coaching institutes will no longer be able to use their credentials without explicit consent, which was not the case earlier,” said Manish K. Shubhay, a partner at The Precept-Law Offices, a law firm based in New Delhi.
“When students previously signed consent forms, they were often legally bound, leaving them with no option to prevent the institutes from using their details. This move could help safeguard the rights of aspirants and give them more control over the use of their personal achievements,” Shubhay said.
Recently, the CCPA issued notices to 45 coaching institutes for violating consumer rights with misleading advertisements and unethical tactics. Of these, 15 institutes were penalised, with total fines amounting to ₹38.60 lakh.
The UPSC civil services examination, conducted every year in three phases, recruits officers for all India services like the IAS and Indian Police Service, and central civil services like the Indian Revenue Service. The first phase is preliminary test (PT), which is a screening test and the marks obtained in PT are not counted in next two phases – mains and personality test. The marks obtained in both mains exams and personality test are counted for final selection.