new delhi the supreme court has agreed to examine the question as to whether an educational institution or university can be sued under the consumer protection law for deficiency in services saying there have been divergent views of the top court on the issuea bench of justices d y chandrachud indu malhotra and indira banerjee has admitted an appeal filed by manu solanki and other students of a medical course against vinayaka mission university at salem in tamil nadu alleging deficiency in servicessince there are divergent views of this court bearing on the subject as to whether an educational institution or university would be subject to the provisions of the consumer protection act 1986 the appeal would require admission admit the top court said in its order of october 15it asked lawyer soumyajit appearing on behalf of caveator university to file the response within six weeks to the appeal filed against a decision of the national consumer disputes redressal commission ncdrcthe university has relied upon apex court judgments in the maharshi dayanand university and in the pt koshy cases to say that these verdicts have held that the education is not a commodity and educational institutions are not providing any kind of servicehence in matter of admission and fees there cannot be a kind of service and therefore there cannot be a question of deficiency of service to be adjudicated upon in consumer forum or commissionsthe students however cited other judgments in which it has been held that educational institutions would come within the purview of the consumer protection act 1986solanki and eight other students of the a medical course of the university had sought a compensation of rs 14 crore each alleging deficiency in service and on account of loss of social standing academic years career opportunities mental and physical agonythey alleged the university induced them to take admission in the course on a false assurance that it had all the requisite approvals from the authoritiesthe students were admitted in the offshore programme in 20052006 comprising of two year study in thailand and twoanda half year study in the university here the plea saidthe students were assured that they would be getting their mbbs final degree conferred by the university and recognized by the indian government and medical council of indiahowever after two years of study in thailand the students were informed that they should continue their course at thailand and would be conferred a foreign medical degree and should subsequently appear for screening test in india the plea allegedthe students said they suffered loss of career opportunities as the national board of examination said that their qualification was not a primary medical qualification since the degree is not recognized by the medical council of india or the council of thailandthe ncdrc in its judgement of january 20 had said we are of the considered opinion that the institutions rendering education including vocational courses and activities undertaken during the process of preadmission as well as postadmission and also imparting