Haryana passes bill to regulate private coaching centres; violators to face Rs 1 lakh fine

CHANDIGARH : The Haryana Assembly today passed a bill to regulate private coaching institutions in the state so as to safeguard the interests of students and their guardians. The state assembly passed the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Private Coaching Institutes Bill, 2024. A total of nine bills, including the Haryana Registration and Regulation of Travel Agents Bill, 2024, were passed on the concluding day of over the week-long Budget session.

Under the provisions of the bill, which was moved in the House by higher education minister Mool Chand Sharma, a private coaching institute violating the proposed law, "shall be liable for each such violation with a fine of Rs 25,000 for the first violation and Rs 1 lakh for the subsequent violation. And in case the violation still continues then the registration of private coaching institute shall be cancelled".

Also read ‘Rules for Kota, Hyderabad’: Centres point to ‘loopholes’ in coaching regulation guidelines

No private coaching institute shall publish any misleading advertisement or give false information relating to the coaching, as per the bill. There shall be an Authority in each district to register and regulate the private coaching institutions and shall comprise of members including Deputy Commissioner, who will be the chairperson. Grievance redressal cells will also be set up at district level.

As per the bill, the "private coaching institute" means an institute in a single premises which includes tuition centre established, run or administered by any person or body of persons, a company, society or trust providing study programme for competitive examinations, but does not include individual home tuition up to 50 students per day.

Centre's guidelines for coaching institutes

The state government had drafted the Haryana Coaching Institutes (Control and Regulation) Bill, 2024 and put in the public domain last month, seeking feedback from public and others concerned.

Recently, the Ministry of Education issued guidelines for regulating coaching institutes which said that coaching centres cannot enrol students below 16 years of age, make misleading promises, guarantee rank or good marks, and distribute batches on the basis of performance. The MoE guidelines for coaching centres had been framed to address the need for a legal framework and manage the unregulated growth of private coaching centres. They came following complaints received by the government about rising student suicide cases, fire incidents, lack of facilities in coaching incidents as well as methodologies of teaching adopted by the coaching institutes.

(with inputs from pti)