Hyderabad: Tech firm to compensate school for deficient service

Hyderabad: Pragati Vidyaniketan High School at Amberpet has won its case at the consumer forum against a company based in Delhi that failed to install hardware and software in the school after collecting Rs 1 lakh from it as per an agreement.

The school told the forum that its plan to set up a digital classroom was affected when Mind Shaper Technologies based in New Delhi did not install the infrastructure. The school said it had entered into an agreement with Mind Shaper Technologies on October 12, 2011, to provide infrastructure for Technology Aided Teaching as per the AP state syllabus for Rs 1 lakh. The school paid up the money.

Despite the agreement, Mind Shaper Technologies provided technology that was not in line with the AP syllabus. After requesting the company to cancel the agreement and return the sum of Rs 1 lakh, along with post-dated cheques that had been submitted by the school, the company presented a cheque of Rs 50,000 and encashed it.

The forum stated that despite several requests from the school officials, Mind Shaper Technologies did not provide the stipulated software content, study material and other equipment.

Although the company contended that it had spent a huge sum of money in training the teachers of the school to use their hardware and software, the forum noted that the software was not useful for the students as it did not follow the desired syllabus. Moreover, there was no record of expenses incurred by the opposite party.

The forum ruled in favour of the school stating that an amount of Rs 50,000 should be paid to the school along with Rs 10,000 towards compensation for mental agony.