Assam Coaching Institutes Act: Who May Teach Your Child

Last reviewed: 3 September 2026.

Assam now has its own coaching law, and the parts that matter most to a parent are not about money at all. They decide whether the centre is allowed to take your child at this age and at this stage, and whether the person standing in front of the class is even allowed to be there. Those two questions are cheaper to ask before admission than to argue about afterwards.

This is the question almost nobody asks, and it changes every answer below.

The Act defines a coaching institute as an institute established and administered by any person or body of persons or society or trust or company to provide guidance and coaching for any study programme or competitive examination, or academic support to students at school, college and university level, with more than 50 students. It defines coaching as tuition, instruction or guidance in any branch of learning imparted to students, and expressly leaves out counselling, sports, dance, theatre and other creative activities.

So the duties in this article are duties on institutes the Act covers. A large branded centre with hundreds of students on the rolls is squarely inside. A neighbourhood tuition running one room for twenty children is a different creature under this definition, and you should not assume the statutory duties bite there. Ask the centre for its total student strength and note the answer.

One more scope point that catches families comparing branches. Where a coaching institute has multiple branches, each branch is treated as a separate coaching institute and a separate application for registration has to be submitted for each. A registration certificate held by the head office in Guwahati is not a registration for the branch in your town.

The Act says it twice, in two different places, which is unusual and tells you how seriously it was meant.

In the list of express prohibitions, no coaching institute shall enrol a student below 16 years of age, or the student enrolment shall be only after secondary school examination. In the code of conduct, students of age below 16 years shall not be enrolled by a coaching institute, or the student enrolment shall be made only after the secondary school examination.

Read together, the bar is tied both to age and to stage. A child who is under 16 and has not yet gone through the secondary school examination is not someone a covered coaching institute is meant to be enrolling. Parents in Assam are routinely sold four year and five year “foundation” packages starting in class 8 or class 9. That is precisely the practice this clause is aimed at.

There is a related duty that protects the child who is legitimately enrolled. The proprietor has to give an undertaking that coaching classes for students who are also studying in a school or institution shall not be conducted during their school hours. If a centre schedules its main batch at 11 in the morning on a working day, it is asking your child to miss school, and it has undertaken not to.

Under the heading dealing with the academic qualification of teachers, the Act says the teaching shall be performed by non-government teachers or retired teachers having at least graduation, and that the bio-data of the teachers along with their academic qualification and experience shall be mentioned in the registration application. Separately, the express prohibitions say no coaching institute shall engage tutors having qualification less than graduation.

Put plainly, this cuts two ways at once.

The moral turpitude bar is backed by a written undertaking. The proprietor has to state that neither he nor any tutor or person employed in any manner in the coaching institute has been convicted for any offence involving moral turpitude, and that any change in the employment of a tutor shall be immediately intimated to the competent authority. That last line is the one to remember when a centre quietly swaps the star faculty you were shown at the demo class.

Coaching marketing in Assam runs on promises. The Act attacks them from both directions.

The prohibitions say no coaching institute shall make misleading promises or guarantee of rank or good marks to parents or students for enrolling them in the coaching institute. Nor shall it publish, cause to be published, or take part in publishing any misleading advertisement relating to any claim, directly or indirectly, about the quality of the coaching, the facilities offered, or the result procured by the institute or by a student who attended.

Then it adds positive duties that run the other way:

• The institute shall declare before the parents of admitted students that admission in the coaching institute is in no way a guarantee of success for admission in medical, engineering, management or law institutions, or in the competitive examination.
• It shall apprise the students about the difficulty of the exam, the syllabus, the level of intensity of preparation and the effort required, before enrolment.
• It shall tell students about other career options beyond engineering and medicine, so that they do not get stressed about their future.
• It may conduct an admission or mock test to assess capability, and on that basis may convey a realistic expectation of the capability of the student to the parents.
• It shall not make public the result of an assessment test it conducts. The test is to stay confidential and be used for performance analysis, and a student whose performance is deteriorating should be counselled.

There is also a batch rule with an Assam specific twist. The total number of students in each class or batch must be defined in the prospectus and published on the website, and enrolment in a batch cannot be increased during the currency of the course. On top of that, batches are to be formed in the order of entry or admission of students, not segregated on academic performance, and the batch is not to be changed till the course is completed. The stated reason is that performance based batch segregation puts excessive pressure on students. If a centre demotes your child to a lower batch after a test, that is the clause to quote.

Registration under this Act is with the District Commissioner of the concerned district, who is the competent authority. There is a District Authority in each district for registering and inspecting coaching institutes, chaired by the District Commissioner, with the Superintendent of Police, the Additional District Commissioner in charge of education, and a college principal of the district among its members.

The Act sets out two registration routes:

1. Institutes already running before the Act commenced had to apply to the competent authority for registration within thirty days from the date of commencement, in the prescribed form and manner.
2. Anyone who wants to start or run a coaching institute has to apply for registration before the District Commissioner of the district within whose jurisdiction the coaching centre is intended to be established.

Unlike the Rajasthan statute, which comes into force on a date the State Government appoints by notification, this Act simply says it shall come into force at once. We are deliberately not printing a commencement date on this page. Ask the District Commissioner in writing where registration in your district currently stands, using the RTI letter below.

Two timing points worth diarising. The competent authority has to grant or reject a registration application within three months of receiving it, and a rejection has to record reasons in writing and cannot be passed without a reasonable opportunity of hearing. A registration certificate runs for two years, and the institute has to apply for renewal two months before expiry.

Here is how you check a centre today, on foot, with no portal at all.

1. Ask to see the registration certificate itself. Photograph it. Note the issuing District Commissioner, the date, and work out when the two year tenure expires.
2. Read the sign board. The proprietor undertakes to use only the words “registered coaching institute” and not the words “recognized” or “approved” on any sign board, prospectus, correspondence or communication of any nature, at any place. A board claiming the centre is government approved or recognised is itself a warning sign.
3. Open the website. Every coaching institute must run a website with updated details of the qualification of tutors, the courses or curriculum, the duration of completion, hostel facilities if any, the fees being charged, its easy exit policy, its fee refund policy, the number of students it has coached and the number who finally got admission.
4. Look at the notice board in the premises. The same information about tutor qualifications, the class timetable, the fee charged and general information has to be displayed on the notice board at a prominent place in the premises, not only online.
5. Ask for the local licences. Inside a municipal area, the centre must hold a valid Trade License issued under the Guwahati Municipal Corporation Act, 1969 or the Assam Municipal Act, 1956, and in panchayat areas from the local authority. The building must have a valid Occupancy Certificate and be used for commercial purpose only.
6. Ask about safety. The Act requires fire extinguisher arrangements, adherence to fire and building safety codes, and a Fire and Building Safety Certificate from the appropriate authority, along with separate toilets for male and female students, safe drinking water, lighting and ventilation, first aid, displayed emergency helpline numbers, and a minimum of one square metre of space per student.
7. Ask who is on the Governing Body. The Act requires a Governing Body comprising representatives of the management, the students and the guardians. If nobody at the centre can name a guardian representative, there is no Governing Body.

1. Put it to the centre in writing first. Email or a letter with an acknowledgement. You will need to show what you asked and what came back.
2. File the complaint with the competent authority, which is the District Commissioner of the district. The Act allows a complaint against a coaching institute to be filed by the student, the parent, or a tutor or an employee of the institute. That employee route is often the only way the attendance registers, the batch lists and the tutor employment records ever reach the District Commissioner at all.
3. Count thirty days. Complaints are to be disposed of by the competent authority within thirty days from the date of receipt. Log the date of receipt and set the reminder. The Timeline Tracker will hold the date for you.
4. Expect an enquiry. The District Commissioner may have the enquiry conducted by an officer not below the rank of sub divisional officer, or by a team, and the report goes to the District Authority. The District Authority can also inspect a coaching institute suo motu or on a complaint, and the owner or person in charge must produce the records the officer asks for.
5. Know what the order can be. After enquiry, the authority may impose a penalty or take action for cancellation of registration. For a violation of the Act, the rules or notifications under it, the institute is liable to pay a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 for the first offence, and for subsequent offences the registration of the institute shall be cancelled. A cancellation order cannot be passed without giving the certificate holder a reasonable opportunity of showing cause.
6. In a serious case, ask for suspension. Where there is serious misconduct or a serious allegation, the Government may direct the District Commissioner to suspend the registration of the institute immediately, until the enquiry is complete.
7. Appeal within thirty days. An aggrieved coaching institute, student or parent may appeal against the action taken, within thirty days, to the Appellate Authority, which is chaired by the senior most Secretary of the Higher Education Department. The same thirty day appeal applies to a refusal to register, a refusal to renew, or a cancellation. Our First Appeal Builder is for RTI appeals, but the discipline of writing grounds is the same.
8. Use the Grievance Redressal Cell. The District Authority is required to constitute a Grievance Redressal Cell at the district and block level for effective resolution of grievances of students and their parents. Ask the District Commissioner whether yours exists.
9. Keep the money route separate. For a refund or a service failure, the consumer route runs in parallel and is not displaced by writing to the District Commissioner. See how to file a consumer court case.

• The receipt for every rupee paid, including any hostel or transport component.
• The prospectus, with the declared batch size and the course duration.
• A screenshot of the website page showing tutor qualifications and fees on the date you enrolled, and a photograph of the notice board.
• Any advertisement, pamphlet, hoarding photograph or social media post carrying a rank or marks guarantee.
• The admission form and any undertaking or declaration the centre gave you about success not being guaranteed.
• The date of birth proof and the secondary school examination record of the student, if the complaint is about the under-16 bar.
• The names of the tutors actually teaching the batch, with dates, if the complaint is about qualifications or a faculty swap.

• Assuming the Act covers every tuition. The definition is keyed to an institute with more than 50 students. Establish the size first.
• Accepting a head office certificate for a branch. Each branch is a separate coaching institute and needs its own registration.
• Believing a “government approved” board. The proprietor has undertaken to use only the words “registered coaching institute” and never “recognized” or “approved”.
• Treating a rank guarantee as sales talk. It is an express prohibition, and the centre separately owes you a declaration that admission guarantees nothing.
• Letting the centre run classes during school hours. The proprietor has undertaken not to, for students who are also studying in a school or institution.
• Not recording who actually teaches. Any change in the employment of a tutor is to be intimated to the competent authority immediately, so the record should exist.
• Waiting for an online portal. The Act requires the Government to create one. Until the department confirms it, ask the District Commissioner directly.
• Missing the thirty day clocks. Complaints are to be disposed of within thirty days, and an appeal against the action taken has to be filed within thirty days.

To
The Public Information Officer
Office of the District Commissioner
[Name of district], Assam
[Address]

Subject: Information under Section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005
regarding registration of a coaching institute under the Assam Coaching
Institutes Control and Regulation Act, 2025

Sir/Madam,

Please provide the following information:

1. Whether the coaching institute named [full name of the coaching institute]
   at [complete address of the branch] is registered under the Assam Coaching
   Institutes Control and Regulation Act, 2025. If registered, please provide
   the registration number, the date of registration, the date of expiry of
   the registration, and a copy of the registration certificate.

2. A copy of the information relating to the academic qualification of
   teachers submitted by the said coaching institute with its application
   for registration, being the bio-data of its tutors along with their
   academic qualification and experience.

3. A copy of the undertaking submitted by the proprietor of the said
   coaching institute along with its application for registration.

4. The total number of applications for registration of coaching institutes
   received by the District Commissioner of this district under the said Act,
   and the number granted and the number rejected, from the commencement of
   the Act up to the date of this application.

5. Whether the web-portal or online mechanism for registration of coaching
   institutes in a faceless manner, required to be created under the said
   Act, has been created. If yes, please provide the date on which it was
   made operational and a copy of the order or notification.

6. The number of complaints received against coaching institutes in this
   district under the said Act, the number disposed of within thirty days,
   and the number of orders imposing a penalty or cancelling registration.

7. Whether the Grievance Redressal Cell at the district level and at the
   block level has been constituted, and if so, a copy of the order
   constituting it with the names and designations of its members.

If any part of this request is held by another public authority, please
transfer that part under Section 6(3) of the RTI Act, 2005 within five days.

I enclose the prescribed application fee. Please supply the information
within 30 days as required by Section 7(1).

Yours faithfully,
[Name]
[Full postal address]
[Phone / email]
[Place, Date]

If nothing arrives in 30 days, that is a deemed refusal and you can file a first appeal under Section 19(1). The AI RTI Drafter will format the application for you, how to file an RTI in India covers the basics of filing, and state wise RTI fees tells you what to pay in Assam.

The Act prohibits a coaching institute from enrolling a student below 16 years of age, and says enrolment shall be only after the secondary school examination. The code of conduct repeats it. So a covered coaching institute is not meant to be enrolling a class 9 child into a long foundation course. Check the size of the centre first, because the Act defines a coaching institute as one with more than 50 students.

The Act says the teaching shall be performed by non-government teachers or retired teachers having at least graduation. A serving government teacher moonlighting at a coaching institute is outside what that clause permits. A retired government teacher who is a graduate is expressly allowed.

Yes, at least graduation. The express prohibitions say no coaching institute shall engage tutors having qualification less than graduation, and the qualification clause requires at least graduation. The institute also has to file the bio-data of its teachers with their academic qualification and experience.

No. The Act prohibits a coaching institute from making misleading promises or a guarantee of rank or good marks to parents or students in order to enrol them, and separately prohibits misleading advertisements about the quality of the coaching, the facilities or the results. The institute must also declare to parents that admission is in no way a guarantee of success.

With the District Commissioner of your district, who is the competent authority under the Act. The Act requires the Government to create a faceless online registration mechanism, but that is a duty to be performed, so do not assume a public register exists. Ask for the registration certificate at the centre, check the website and notice board, and file the RTI application above.

A complaint against a coaching institute may be filed before the competent authority by the student, the parent, or a tutor or employee of the institute. Complaints are to be disposed of within thirty days of receipt. An appeal against the action taken lies to the Appellate Authority within thirty days.

For violation of the Act, the rules or notifications under it, the institute is liable to a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 for the first offence, and for subsequent offences its registration is to be cancelled. Cancellation needs a show cause opportunity first. In a case of serious misconduct or allegation, the Government may direct the District Commissioner to suspend the registration immediately until the enquiry is finished.

Not directly. This Act makes the institute publish its fee refund policy and easy exit policy on its website, requires tuition fees to be fair and reasonable with receipts made available, and requires the fee for each course to be disclosed at registration. It does not build the refund machinery that Rajasthan built, where a District Committee can order a pro rata refund. Compare the Rajasthan coaching centres law and its fee refund rule. For your money in Assam, the consumer route is still the practical one.

No. Unlike the Rajasthan statute, which comes into force on a date the State Government appoints, this Act says it shall come into force at once. Institutes running before commencement had thirty days from commencement to apply for registration. We are not printing a commencement date here. Ask your District Commissioner in writing for the current registration position in your district.

• The Assam Coaching Institutes Control and Regulation Act, 2025, Assam Act No. XXXII of 2025 - the scanned Assam Gazette, Extraordinary, No. 451, Dispur, dated 20 June 2025, Notification No. LGL.26/2025/33 of the Legislative Department, publishing the Act as assented by the Governor of Assam on 19 June 2025. The clauses described above were read from the page images of this document. It is a scanned document, so quotations here are paraphrased closely rather than pinned to clause numbers.
• The Right to Information Act, 2005 - Sections 6(1), 6(3), 7(1) and 19(1), used in the sample application above.

• How to file a consumer court case
• How to file an RTI in India
• State wise RTI fees
• AI RTI Drafter
• Timeline Tracker
• RTI Wiki Practical Guides
• The RTI Playbook

Reviewed by Dr. Shrawan Kumar Pathak. General legal information, not legal advice. The Act text here was read from a scanned gazette, so no clause numbers are cited. Confirm the current registration position with your District Commissioner before acting.