Ad case: IIT-B to take legal action against coaching class

Anahita Mukherji | TNN

Mumbai: IIT-Bombay officially announced on Saturday that it would initiate legal proceedings against IITian’s Pace, a coaching class that trains students for the IIT entrance test.

TOI reported over a week ago that Pace had placed an advertisement in a newspaper with a photograph of the IIT-B dean along with a note from him praising the coaching class after having sent his son there. The aggrieved dean said he had written the note as feedback for the coaching class in his capacity as a parent and not as dean. He was upset that it was used in an ad for the coaching class.

“IIT-Bombay wrote a letter to Pace, asking for all mention of IIT-Bombay to be removed
from the class’s publicity material,’’ IIT-B PRO Jaya Joshi said.

However, on Friday, the coaching class once again published a newspaper ad stating that the IIT director, dean as well as 30 IIT professors sent their children to the centre, following which IIT announced legal proceedings against Pace.

“The advertisements mention IIT-B’s name without any consent from the institute. The institute had also issued a letter informing Pace to forthwith stop the use of IIT-B’s name in the ads. The advertisement published on April 3 is in spite of the earlier intimation,’’ the statement issued by IIT said.

Pace MD Praveen Tyagi, however, felt that if the IIT-B dean, director and professors sent their children to Pace, it was something parents ought to know while selecting a coaching class.

IIT-B director Devang Khakhar said, “What is published in the ad is true. But where we send our children for coaching is a personal matter and the IIT is no way connected. We do not endorse any coaching class.’’