The woman had enrolled herself in NIIT's GNIIT course comprising four semesters of classroom coaching and one year of professional practice as an employee/stipendee.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission's (NCDRC) gave the direction to NIIT while partly allowing city resident Anu Kohli's plea for enhancement of the compensation awarded to her by a district forum here, whose order had been upheld by the Delhi State Consumer Commission.
The NCDRC, however, dismissed the NIIT's plea for setting aside the concurrent verdicts of the two lower foras and said the institute's failure to pay her the stipend for the entire duration of her professional practice amounted to cheating and playing with the life of a student.
"The opposite party (NIIT) failed to pay the stipend during this period (last five months of course)... This shows cheating on the part of opposite party in order to save money. They have played with the life of a student.
"We dismiss the revision petition filed by the opposite party and partly allow the second appeal filed by complainant (Kohli). The opposite party is directed to pay her Rs 38,944 towards fee (deposited by her)...
"The opposite party is also directed to pay Rs one lakh to her as compensation for harassment and Rs 35,000 as stipend (due to her) for the five months (of professional practice)," the bench presided by Justice J M Malik said.
While passing its order, the NCDRC relied on NIIT's letter to Kohli, converting her professional practice into project mode and informing her that she will not be paid any stipend for the remaining period of the course.
Referring to the letter, the NCDRC also rued that "foras below have not appreciated the documents properly" while passing their orders. (MORE)