Refund from online education platform and getting threats for civil and criminal proceedings against me.

Dear Client,

On the post itself, there are considerations on both sides rather than a single correct course. Keeping it up preserves your position if you later wish to rely on it as a factual account, and preserves evidence of when it was made and its exact content. Removing it could reduce friction with the company in the short term, but doing so under an explicit threat may also be read as conceding wrongdoing, and would not undo the fact that it existed. Whether it amounts to defamation depends on its actual wording, factual accuracy, and tone, none of which we have reviewed, so we cannot advise definitively either way without seeing the post itself. In either case, preserve all payment records, chats, and calls, since these will matter regardless of what you decide.

On the refund, a consumer complaint under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 before your local District Consumer Commission in Kolkata for deficiency in service is a more structured route than continuing informal negotiation, though outcome would depend on the specific enrollment and cancellation terms, which we have not reviewed.

I hope this answer helps. If you have any further query kindly do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you.

Dear Client,

Based on your legal query, I am providing my legal opinion for you. First of all, do not panic; sharing personal experience on LinkedIn does not amount to civil or criminal defamation. Then collect all the screenshots of the conditional refund offer, screenshots of payments, and initiated EMIs by Instacred.

Secondly, archive the LinkedIn post mentioning Instacred, and then ask the company for a full refund and to close all the ongoing EMIs

Thirdly, if this does not work out, then send a legal notice to Instacred claiming the refund within 15 days or otherwise face legal consequences.

If no reply comes from them within 15 days, then you can file a complaint in the Consumer Court.

For further legal queries, you can surely contact us

OLQ LAW FIRM

The institute’s threats are standard intimidation tactics, and are largely baseless. Firstly, the defamation claims are highly unlikely to succeed. Sharing a truthful, factual consumer experience is a valid legal defense against defamation in India. The threat of a multi-crore lawsuit is merely a coercive pressure tactic. Additionally, conditioning your rightful refund on the removal of online reviews constitutes an unfair trade practice under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. Regarding the EMI liability, the financier correctly requires merchant authorization to cancel the loan. The institute is legally responsible for deliberately stalling this cancellation. For your recommended next steps, you must preserve your evidence and not delete your posts. Removing them eliminates your leverage with absolutely no guarantee of a refund. You should also maintain a written record only by ceasing all phone calls and moving all communication to email. This will secure written evidence of their conditional demands. Finally, engage an advocate to serve a formal legal notice to the institute, copying the financier, demanding the immediate cancellation of the enrollment and the EMI mandate. If they fail to comply within the notice period, file a formal complaint via the National Consumer Helpline portal against both the institute and the financier for deficiency of service.

I hope this answer helps, if you have any other query kindly do not hesitate to contact us. Thank-you.