Coaching Centre Closed Down Without a Refund: How to Claim Your Money

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

In January, Meghana paid Rs 64,800 to a banking exam coaching chain for a twelve month classroom course at its Dilsukhnagar centre in Hyderabad. In May the shutters came down. Head office told students they could “continue online” or travel to a centre 19 kilometres away. Nobody mentioned a refund. Meghana's position in law is simple. The institute changed the service after taking her money, so she can refuse both substitutes and demand a pro rata refund of the eight unused months, about Rs 43,200, plus compensation if she has to fight for it.

If your centre has closed, your claim works the same way. Here is how to run it.

Divide the total fee by the course duration, then multiply by the unused portion. Use months or classes, whichever your receipt or schedule describes:

• Fee Rs 64,800 for 12 months = Rs 5,400 a month.
• Centre ran for 4 months, so 8 months are unused.
• Refund claim: 8 x Rs 5,400 = Rs 43,200.

The Ministry of Education's January 2024 coaching centre guidelines require a pro rata refund within ten days when a student cannot continue. When the institute itself closes the centre, your case is stronger still, because the failure is entirely on its side. Keep the calculation visible in every letter and complaint. Specific numbers settle faster than angry paragraphs.

You paid for classroom teaching at a specific centre. That location and format were part of the bargain, often the deciding part. The institute may offer alternatives, and you may genuinely prefer one. But an offer is not an entitlement. If the substitute does not work for you, say so once, in writing, and ask for the refund instead. Do not keep attending the substitute “for now”, because continued attendance weakens the claim that the new arrangement was unacceptable.

To: The Director, [Institute name], Registered Office, [address]
Copy: Centre Head, [closed centre address]
Date: [DD/MM/YYYY]
Subject: Pro rata refund after closure of [centre name],
Enrolment No. [number]

1. I enrolled at your [centre] for the [course], paying Rs [amount]
   on [date] for [duration]. Receipt attached.
2. The centre stopped operating on [date]. Only [number] months of
   the course were delivered.
3. I do not accept online classes or transfer to [other centre] as
   a substitute for the classroom course I purchased.
4. I claim a pro rata refund of Rs [amount] for the undelivered
   portion, credited to [account] within 10 days, in line with the
   Ministry of Education coaching centre guidelines, January 2024.
5. Failing this, I will pursue the matter before the consumer
   commission and report the conduct to the Central Consumer
   Protection Authority.

[Name, mobile, email]

Send it to the registered office, not just the dead centre. Find the registered address on the receipt, the website, or the MCA company search.

The Central Consumer Protection Authority issued guidelines for the coaching sector in November 2024 against misleading advertisements, and it has fined coaching institutes for false success claims. If the chain kept advertising admissions at your centre while planning to shut it, mention that in your CCPA complaint. It is pressure your refund claim alone cannot create.

Most centre closures are business failures, and the consumer route is the correct and fastest path. The picture changes if the operators collected fresh fees in the days before shutting and have since become untraceable, with phones off and the registered office empty. Taking money for a service the institute knew it would not deliver may amount to cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. In that situation you may consider filing a police complaint alongside the consumer case, ideally as a group of affected students with a joint memo of facts. Be careful with the wording. State the facts and dates, and let the police assess the offence. Do not allege fraud in your consumer filings unless you have evidence, because exaggeration weakens an otherwise clean refund claim.

A closed centre means dozens of students with identical claims. Form a WhatsApp group, collect receipts, and file consumer complaints in parallel or jointly. The Department of Consumer Affairs has reported refunds of more than Rs 1 crore arranged through the National Consumer Helpline against coaching centres, and grouped complaints move institutes faster than lone ones. RTI does not apply here, since a private coaching company is not a public authority, but if your group complains to a state body that then sits idle, an RTI to that body about the action taken is fair game. See how to file RTI online for that narrow use.

Related fights have their own guides: hostel deposit and mess advance refunds if you also lived in the institute's hostel, batch cancellation and poor service refunds when the centre is open but the course collapsed, and college closure and student transfer for degree institutions. Browse the full set on the practical guides hub.

A clause that lets the institute swap the entire promised service for a different one, at its sole choice, is a one sided term. Consumer commissions can set aside unfair contract terms under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Your acceptance at admission was for a classroom course at that centre.

Yes. A transfer that adds hours of daily travel for a school age or working student is not a reasonable substitute. Record the distance and travel time in your demand letter.

Demand that the institute refund the financier directly and close the loan, and that it confirms this to you in writing. Keep paying EMIs in the meantime if the financier demands them, then claim those amounts in the consumer complaint. Stopping EMIs unilaterally can damage your credit record.

Use the institute's own schedule. If 300 classes were promised and 80 were held, claim the fee value of 220 classes. Where records are thin, the monthly method is acceptable. Pick the method that matches your receipt and state it openly.

Two years from the date the centre closed or the refund was refused, whichever is later. File well before that, while student witnesses and staff contacts are still reachable.

Not automatically. File your claim with the insolvency professional as a creditor when a process starts, and still pursue the consumer complaint. Take advice if the amount is large, because timelines in insolvency are strict.

Download the coaching centre closure refund checklist (PDF).