Terms and Conditions

Effective Date: 13 July 2026
Last Updated: 13 July 2026

Welcome to ShodhShastra.

These Terms and Conditions govern your access to and use of the ShodhShastra website, user dashboard, conference-management facilities, manuscript-submission services, research-consultancy services, publication-support services, plagiarism and similarity services, academic consultations, workshops, Faculty Development Programmes, courses, training programmes, and other services offered through the platform.

By registering on the website, submitting a form, uploading a document, booking a consultation, making a payment, or otherwise using any ShodhShastra service, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and Conditions.

1. About ShodhShastra

ShodhShastra is operated by:

Legal Entity: Shodh Shastra
Registered Address: Chandigarh
Website: www.shodhshastra.com
Email: publication@shodhshastra.com

ShodhShastra provides academic conference-management, institutional collaboration, research consultancy, manuscript editing, publication support, statistical-analysis assistance, research mentoring, academic training, and related scholarly services.

2. Definitions

For these Terms:

• “ShodhShastra,” “we,” “our,” or “us” means the legal entity operating www.shodhshastra.com.
• “User,” “you,” or “your” means any person, author, scholar, faculty member, researcher, student, reviewer, consultant, institution, university, college, organisation, or other entity accessing or using the website.
• “Services” means all paid and unpaid facilities offered through ShodhShastra.
• “Document” means any manuscript, research paper, thesis, dissertation, synopsis, proposal, report, dataset, presentation, questionnaire, review, or supporting file uploaded by a User.
• “Conference” means any seminar, symposium, congress, workshop, academic meeting, or conference listed, promoted, coordinated, or managed through ShodhShastra.
• “Consultant” means any professor, researcher, statistician, reviewer, trainer, editor, or subject expert available through the platform.
• “Publication Support” means editorial, technical, formatting, journal-identification, submission, and reviewer-response assistance. It does not mean guaranteed publication.
• “Similarity Reduction” means legitimate rewriting, citation correction, structural editing, and removal of accidental duplication. It does not mean disguising plagiarism or bypassing detection systems.

3. Acceptance of Terms

You accept these Terms by an affirmative action, including:

• Selecting an acceptance checkbox;
• Registering an account;
• Verifying an email address through OTP;
• Submitting a request;
• Uploading a Document;
• Booking a consultation;
• Registering for a Conference or Academy programme;
• Making a payment;
• Continuing to use the website after updated Terms become effective.

You should not use the website where you do not agree to these Terms.

4. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and legally competent to enter into a contract.

A person under 18 may use the platform only through a parent, legal guardian, authorised teacher, or authorised institutional representative.

Where you use ShodhShastra on behalf of an institution or organisation, you confirm that you have authority to bind that institution or organisation.

5. User Registration

Some services require a registered account.

You agree to:

1. Provide complete and accurate information;
2. Use a valid email address;
3. Complete email OTP verification;
4. Maintain only one account unless otherwise authorised;
5. Keep your password and OTP confidential;
6. Update your information when it changes;
7. Notify ShodhShastra immediately about unauthorised access;
8. Accept responsibility for activity conducted through your account.

ShodhShastra may request identity, institutional, authorship, or payment verification where reasonably necessary.

We may reject, restrict, suspend, or close an account containing false, misleading, incomplete, duplicate, or fraudulent information.

6. Account Security

You must not:

• Share your password or OTP;
• Allow another person to use your account;
• Attempt to access another User’s account;
• Circumvent reCAPTCHA, OTP, payment, or security controls;
• Use automated scripts to submit forms;
• Introduce malware or harmful code;
• Attempt unauthorised access to the website or database.

ShodhShastra may temporarily restrict access when suspicious activity is detected.

7. Services Offered

ShodhShastra may provide the following services:

7.1 ShodhShastra Conferences

• Conference planning and management;
• Institutional collaboration;
• Calls for papers;
• Abstract and manuscript submission;
• Reviewer coordination;
• Revision and resubmission;
• Conference registration;
• Proceedings coordination;
• Publication liaison;
• Certificates and acceptance communications.

7.2 ShodhShastra Research

• Research-design consultation;
• Methodology guidance;
• Literature-review support;
• Questionnaire development;
• Sampling guidance;
• Statistical analysis;
• Interpretation and presentation of results;
• Research mentoring.

7.3 ShodhShastra Publications

• Manuscript editing;
• Formatting;
• Reference checking;
• Journal identification;
• Submission assistance;
• Technical review;
• Reviewer-response assistance;
• Publication-process tracking.

7.4 ShodhShastra Thesis Support

• Proposal and synopsis mentoring;
• Research-methodology consultation;
• Chapter review;
• Statistical analysis;
• Citation and reference assistance;
• Formatting;
• Presentation and viva preparation.

ShodhShastra does not prepare a thesis or assessed academic work for submission as the User’s independent original work.

7.5 ShodhShastra Academy

• Research workshops;
• Faculty Development Programmes;
• Research training;
• Academic-writing courses;
• Statistical-software training;
• Institutional training programmes;
• Resource-person coordination.

7.6 Professor and Research-Expert Consultation

Users may book online consultations with available professors, researchers, statisticians, editors, or subject experts.

7.7 Plagiarism and Similarity Services

• Plagiarism or similarity checking;
• AI-writing indicator reports, where available;
• Citation correction;
• Similarity reduction through legitimate editing;
• Academic-integrity consultation.

8. Academic Integrity

Users must comply with all applicable university, journal, publisher, conference, professional, and legal requirements.

You must not use ShodhShastra to:

1. Purchase authorship;
2. Obtain a complete thesis, dissertation, examination answer, or assessed assignment for submission as your independent work;
3. Fabricate or falsify data;
4. Create false respondents, surveys, interviews, experiments, results, or ethics approvals;
5. Manufacture acceptance letters, certificates, invoices, or official documents;
6. Conceal plagiarism;
7. Manipulate citations;
8. Arrange fake peer review;
9. Submit stolen or unauthorised research;
10. Infringe intellectual-property rights;
11. Bypass plagiarism or AI-detection systems through deceptive methods;
12. Misrepresent another person’s contribution;
13. Engage in paper-mill, contract-cheating, or ghost-authorship practices.

ShodhShastra may reject or terminate any request that appears to involve academic misconduct.

9. User Responsibility for Academic Work

You remain solely responsible for:

• The originality of your research;
• The accuracy of your data;
• Research ethics and approvals;
• Participant consent;
• Authorship decisions;
• Conflicts of interest;
• Funding disclosures;
• Journal declarations;
• Institutional permissions;
• Accuracy of the final submission;
• Compliance with your university or publisher’s rules.

Editorial or consultancy assistance does not transfer authorship or academic responsibility to ShodhShastra.

10. Document Submissions

When uploading a Document, you confirm that:

• You own it or have permission to submit it;
• It does not unlawfully infringe third-party rights;
• It does not contain malware;
• The information supplied with it is accurate;
• All authors have authorised the requested service, where applicable;
• You have removed unnecessary sensitive personal data;
• Its submission does not violate an institutional, contractual, or legal obligation.

ShodhShastra may reject files that are corrupted, password-protected, unsupported, unlawful, suspicious, or unsafe.

11. Manuscript Workflow

A manuscript request may progress through stages such as:

• Submitted;
• Payment pending;
• Initial screening;
• Under editorial review;
• Reviewer assigned;
• Under review;
• Revision required;
• Revised manuscript submitted;
• Accepted;
• Rejected;
• Camera-ready paper required;
• Registration completed;
• Proceedings submitted;
• Publication in process;
• Published;
• Closed.

Dashboard statuses are operational updates and do not constitute a guarantee of publication, indexing, or acceptance.

12. Conference Submissions

Authors submitting to a Conference must follow:

• The Conference scope;
• Author guidelines;
• Formatting requirements;
• Submission deadlines;
• Ethical requirements;
• Registration conditions;
• Revision instructions;
• Camera-ready paper requirements.

ShodhShastra or the Conference organiser may reject a submission that is:

• Outside the Conference scope;
• Late;
• Incomplete;
• Incorrectly formatted;
• Plagiarised;
• Unethical;
• Defamatory;
• Infringing;
• Technically defective;
• Not revised as requested.

Submission of a paper does not guarantee acceptance, presentation, publication, proceedings inclusion, or indexing.

13. Conference Changes

Conference dates, venues, delivery modes, schedules, sessions, speakers, publication arrangements, or deadlines may change due to operational, institutional, publisher, technical, legal, or force-majeure circumstances.

Where a material change occurs, registered Users will be informed through the website, email, dashboard, or other available communication channel.

14. Scopus and Indexing Disclaimer

ShodhShastra may assist in coordinating Conferences, proceedings, or publication opportunities associated with journals or publishers that are represented as indexed or eligible for indexing.

However:

• ShodhShastra does not control Scopus or another indexing database;
• Indexing databases independently select and review sources;
• A journal’s or proceedings series’ indexing status may change;
• Coverage may be discontinued;
• Individual papers may not appear immediately;
• Indexing timelines are not controlled by ShodhShastra;
• Conference participation does not guarantee Scopus indexing.

Users must independently verify the current status of a journal, proceedings series, or publisher before payment or submission.

No statement by an employee, consultant, coordinator, representative, or partner shall constitute a guarantee of indexing unless expressly confirmed in a written legally binding agreement and capable of being lawfully guaranteed.

15. Journal Publication Support

Publication Support may include:

• Preliminary manuscript assessment;
• Journal shortlisting;
• Quartile preference assessment;
• Formatting;
• Language editing;
• Technical editing;
• Submission assistance;
• Reviewer-response support;
• Status coordination.

Journal acceptance is determined independently by the journal’s editor, reviewers, publisher, and applicable policies.

ShodhShastra does not guarantee:

• Acceptance;
• Publication;
• A particular journal;
• Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4 placement;
• A specific impact factor;
• A particular publication date;
• Citation results;
• Continued indexing.

Where a User indicates a preferred quartile, it will be treated as a target preference and not a guaranteed outcome.

16. Plagiarism-Checking Service

The current plagiarism-checking charge is:

₹200 per submitted Document, unless a different price is displayed at checkout.

The request is completed only after successful payment.

The service may include:

• A similarity report;
• An AI-writing indicator report, where available;
• General observations regarding matching content.

A report may vary according to:

• The checking platform;
• Database coverage;
• Exclusion settings;
• Repository access;
• File format;
• Document version;
• Quotation and bibliography settings.

ShodhShastra does not guarantee that reports generated by different platforms will show identical results.

AI-writing indicators are automated estimates and must not be treated as conclusive proof of authorship, misconduct, or originality.

17. Similarity-Reduction Service

The current similarity-reduction rate is:

₹100 per page, unless a different rate is displayed at checkout.

The payable amount is calculated according to the page count submitted or verified for the uploaded Document.

For example:

10 pages × ₹100 = ₹1,000

You must enter the correct page count.

Where the actual page count exceeds the declared page count, ShodhShastra may:

• Request additional payment;
• Pause the assignment;
• Revise the delivery deadline;
• Process only the paid number of pages.

Similarity reduction consists of legitimate services such as:

• Citation correction;
• Proper attribution;
• Original rewriting based on the underlying meaning;
• Structural editing;
• Removal of accidental duplication;
• Reference correction;
• Improvement of academic expression.

ShodhShastra does not guarantee a specific similarity percentage because results depend on the checking platform and document settings.

We will not deliberately manipulate text to deceive plagiarism-detection or academic-integrity systems.

18. Report-Delivery Time

Plagiarism and AI-writing reports are generally intended to be delivered within approximately 30 minutes during declared operating hours.

Delivery may take longer because of:

• Document length;
• File corruption;
• Platform downtime;
• Internet failure;
• High submission volume;
• Manual verification;
• Third-party service interruption;
• Payment verification;
• Technical problems.

The 30-minute period is an estimated service target and not an unconditional guarantee unless expressly stated otherwise at checkout.

19. Research Consultation Appointments

The standard research-consultation fee is:

₹499 per appointment, unless another amount is displayed at booking.

A paid appointment entitlement must ordinarily be used within seven days of successful payment.

Consultations:

• Are conducted online;
• May use Google Meet, Zoom, Jitsi, or another approved platform;
• Are limited to the booked duration;
• Cover the selected research issue;
• Do not guarantee resolution of every research problem;
• Do not constitute university supervision, legal advice, medical advice, or official institutional approval.

The Consultant’s personal email address and telephone number will not be displayed to the User.

Communication must remain through the ShodhShastra platform or approved meeting facility.

20. Appointment Rescheduling and No-Shows

A User may request one rescheduling, subject to:

• Availability of the Consultant;
• Requesting the change at least 12 hours before the appointment;
• Using the appointment within the applicable validity period.

A User who does not attend the meeting within 15 minutes of the scheduled starting time may be treated as a no-show.

No refund will ordinarily be issued for:

• User no-show;
• Late arrival;
• Failure to join due to the User’s device or internet;
• Failure to provide documents in advance;
• Cancellation after the applicable cutoff.

Where ShodhShastra or the Consultant cancels the appointment, the User may receive either:

• A replacement appointment; or
• A refund of the appointment fee.

21. Academy Programmes

Programme details may include:

• Topic;
• Dates;
• Duration;
• Mode;
• Venue;
• Resource person;
• Registration fee;
• Seat availability;
• Certification conditions;
• Attendance requirements.

Programme registration does not guarantee a certificate unless the User satisfies the stated attendance, assessment, payment, and participation requirements.

ShodhShastra may replace a resource person or revise a schedule where reasonably necessary.

22. Institutional Requests

Universities, colleges, institutions, associations, and organisations may request:

• Conference collaboration;
• Workshop organisation;
• Faculty Development Programmes;
• Research training;
• Customized courses;
• Resource persons;
• Proceedings or publication coordination.

Submitting an institutional request does not create a partnership, agency, joint venture, financial commitment, or binding collaboration.

A collaboration becomes binding only after the authorised parties sign a separate proposal, agreement, work order, memorandum of understanding, or other written instrument.

23. Pricing

Service prices are displayed:

• On the relevant service page;
• In the submission form;
• At checkout;
• In a written quotation;
• In an institutional proposal;
• In the User dashboard.

ShodhShastra may revise prices prospectively.

A revised price will not ordinarily affect a service already paid for, except where:

• The User supplied an incorrect page count;
• The scope changes;
• Additional work is requested;
• Third-party costs change;
• The original quotation expires;
• Taxes or legally required charges apply.

24. Taxes and Invoices

Applicable taxes may be added to the displayed fee.

Users must provide accurate billing details.

Invoices will be based on the information supplied at checkout. Requests to amend an invoice after issuance may be accepted only where legally and technically permissible.

25. Payment Processing

Payments may be processed through Razorpay, WooCommerce, banks, card networks, UPI providers, wallets, or other authorised payment partners.

ShodhShastra does not directly control:

• Banking authorisation;
• UPI availability;
• Card approval;
• Payment-gateway uptime;
• Bank processing times;
• Chargeback decisions.

A request is treated as paid only after successful payment confirmation is received.

An amount debited but not confirmed may require reconciliation by the bank or payment provider.

26. Pending and Failed Payments

Where payment is:

• Pending;
• Failed;
• Cancelled;
• Abandoned;
• Reversed;
• Flagged for verification;

the corresponding service request may remain inactive or hidden until payment is confirmed.

Temporary files connected with abandoned or unpaid requests may be automatically deleted after the stated retention period.

27. Refund and Cancellation Policy

Refund eligibility depends on the service and the stage of processing.

27.1 Duplicate or Excess Payment

A verified duplicate or excess payment will be refunded after reconciliation.

27.2 Plagiarism-Checking Service

The plagiarism-checking fee is ordinarily non-refundable once:

• Payment has been confirmed; and
• Processing has started or the Document has been submitted to the checking system.

A refund may be issued where ShodhShastra is unable to provide the paid service.

27.3 Similarity-Reduction Service

Before work begins, a cancellation request may be considered, subject to payment-gateway, administrative, or third-party charges.

After work begins:

• Completed work is chargeable;
• A proportionate refund may be considered for work not started;
• Third-party costs are non-refundable;
• No refund is available merely because a specific similarity percentage was not achieved.

27.4 Consultation Appointments

Appointment fees are non-refundable for a User no-show, late cancellation, or failure to join.

Where ShodhShastra cannot provide the appointment, the User may receive a replacement booking or refund.

27.5 Conference Registration

Conference-registration refunds are governed by the policy displayed on the relevant Conference page.

Non-refundable costs may include:

• Payment-gateway charges;
• Publisher charges;
• Proceedings charges;
• Conference-kit costs;
• Venue commitments;
• Certificate processing;
• Third-party expenses.

27.6 Publication Support

Publication-support fees are not refundable solely because:

• A manuscript is rejected;
• Revision is requested;
• A journal takes longer than expected;
• The User changes the target journal;
• Indexing status changes;
• The User withdraws after work begins.

Where the service is divided into stages, only an unstarted and uncommitted stage may be considered for refund.

27.7 Mandatory Consumer Rights

Nothing in these Terms limits any non-waivable right available to a consumer under applicable law.

28. Service Timelines

All stated delivery timelines are estimates unless expressly described as guaranteed.

Timelines may depend on:

• User response;
• Document quality;
• Reviewer availability;
• Consultant availability;
• Journal response;
• Publisher timelines;
• Conference organisers;
• Payment verification;
• Scope changes;
• Third-party systems.

A delay caused by a journal, publisher, reviewer, institution, indexing database, payment provider, or User is not under ShodhShastra’s direct control.

29. Revisions

The number and scope of revisions may be specified in the service description or quotation.

A revision must relate to the original agreed scope.

Additional charges may apply where the User requests:

• A new research topic;
• Additional chapters;
• New data analysis;
• A different methodology;
• A different journal format;
• Additional pages;
• New services;
• Revisions after the stated period.

30. User Communications

You authorise ShodhShastra to send service-related communications through:

• Email;
• Dashboard notifications;
• Browser notifications;
• SMS or messaging services where enabled;
• Telephone, where reasonably required;
• Automated transactional messages.

Marketing communication will be sent according to applicable consent and unsubscribe requirements.

You are responsible for keeping your email address and notification details current.

31. Confidentiality

ShodhShastra will take reasonable measures to protect unpublished Documents and confidential information.

Access may be provided only to persons reasonably involved in the requested service, such as:

• Assigned coordinators;
• Editors;
• Reviewers;
• Consultants;
• Statisticians;
• Authorised administrators;
• Technical providers;
• Payment providers;
• Legally authorised authorities.

Users must also maintain the confidentiality of reviewer comments, private meeting links, internal communications, quotations, and restricted platform information.

32. Data Retention and Deletion

Uploaded Documents may be retained for the period required to:

• Provide the service;
• Resolve complaints;
• Maintain transaction records;
• Comply with legal obligations;
• Prevent fraud;
• Maintain security;
• Complete authorised backups.

For plagiarism-checking services, ShodhShastra intends to remove the working copy after the service is completed according to the applicable retention schedule.

Users acknowledge that:

• Backup copies may remain temporarily in protected backups;
• Payment and invoice records may be retained where legally required;
• Files shared with an authorised third-party checking platform may be subject to that platform’s retention policy;
• Absolute immediate deletion from every backup or third-party system cannot be guaranteed unless expressly confirmed.

Detailed practices are explained in the ShodhShastra Privacy Policy and Data-Retention Policy.

33. Intellectual Property

Users retain ownership of their original Documents.

By uploading a Document, you grant ShodhShastra a limited, non-exclusive licence to:

• Store it;
• Process it;
• Share it with assigned service providers;
• Review it;
• Format it;
• Analyse it;
• Return edited versions;
• Perform the requested service.

This licence exists only for service delivery, administration, security, and legal compliance.

You must not upload content that unlawfully infringes copyright, trademarks, confidentiality, privacy, or other rights.

34. ShodhShastra Intellectual Property

The following belong to ShodhShastra or its licensors:

• Website design;
• Logo;
• Brand name;
• Software;
• Dashboard;
• Text and graphics;
• Training content;
• Templates;
• Original reports;
• Conference-management materials;
• Databases;
• Processes.

Users may not copy, reproduce, resell, reverse engineer, scrape, or commercially exploit this material without written permission.

35. Third-Party Platforms

The website may integrate with:

• Payment gateways;
• Video-meeting providers;
• Email providers;
• Analytics services;
• Plagiarism-checking platforms;
• Publishers;
• Journals;
• Conference partners;
• Cloud-storage services.

Third-party services are governed by their own terms, privacy policies, availability, and technical requirements.

ShodhShastra is not responsible for an independent third party’s acts, omissions, outages, policies, or decisions, except to the extent required by law.

36. Acceptable Use

You must not:

• Use the website unlawfully;
• Submit fraudulent information;
• Upload malware;
• Harass Experts or staff;
• Send spam;
• Scrape data;
• Create fake accounts;
• Abuse refund or chargeback procedures;
• Manipulate reviews;
• Interfere with another User;
• Circumvent payment;
• Contact assigned Experts privately to avoid platform fees;
• Attempt unauthorised database or file access;
• Misuse Conference or publication information.

37. Suspension or Termination

ShodhShastra may suspend, restrict, or terminate an account or service request where there is:

• Academic misconduct;
• Fraud;
• False information;
• Non-payment;
• Chargeback abuse;
• Security risk;
• Harassment;
• Confidentiality breach;
• Intellectual-property infringement;
• Unlawful activity;
• Repeated violation of these Terms.

Where reasonably appropriate, the User will be given notice or an opportunity to respond.

Immediate action may be taken where necessary to protect Users, confidential information, academic integrity, the website, or legal compliance.

38. Disclaimer of Warranties

The website and services are provided with reasonable professional care but are subject to the limitations stated in these Terms.

ShodhShastra does not warrant that:

• The website will always be uninterrupted;
• Every error will be corrected immediately;
• A journal will accept a paper;
• A Conference will publish a paper;
• Scopus will index a source or individual paper;
• A User will obtain a degree, grade, promotion, citation, or academic benefit;
• A similarity score will reach a specific percentage;
• AI-detection results will be conclusive;
• A Consultant will resolve every research issue;
• Third-party systems will always be available.

39. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, ShodhShastra will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential loss arising from:

• Journal rejection;
• Conference rejection;
• Indexing changes;
• Institutional decisions;
• Lost academic opportunities;
• Loss of anticipated publication;
• User-supplied errors;
• Incorrect data;
• Third-party interruption;
• Failure of a User’s internet or device;
• Unauthorised account use caused by the User;
• Events outside reasonable control.

Where liability cannot legally be excluded, ShodhShastra’s liability will be limited according to applicable law and the circumstances of the relevant service.

Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded.

40. User Indemnity

You agree to be responsible for claims, losses, or expenses arising from your:

• Fraud;
• Wilful misconduct;
• Unlawful use;
• Fabricated research;
• Plagiarism;
• Intellectual-property infringement;
• Confidentiality breach;
• Misrepresentation;
• Unauthorised submission;
• Material violation of these Terms.

This provision applies only to the extent permitted by law.

41. Force Majeure

ShodhShastra will not be responsible for delay or failure caused by circumstances beyond reasonable control, including:

• Natural disasters;
• Flood, fire, or earthquake;
• War or civil disturbance;
• Epidemic or pandemic;
• Government restrictions;
• Internet or electricity failure;
• Cyberattack;
• Publisher system failure;
• Payment-system outage;
• Labour disruption;
• Closure of institutions;
• Failure of critical infrastructure.

We will take reasonable steps to reduce disruption and communicate material changes.

42. Complaints and Grievances

Users may submit complaints through:

Email: publication@shodhshastra.com
Grievance Officer: [Insert Name]
Designation: Grievance Officer
Address: [Insert Complete Address]
Telephone: [Insert Contact Number]

Consumer complaints will ordinarily be acknowledged within 48 hours and addressed within one month, subject to the nature and complexity of the matter.

The complaint should include:

• User name;
• Registered email address;
• Submission or order ID;
• Description of the issue;
• Relevant documents;
• Requested resolution.

43. Chargebacks and Payment Disputes

Before initiating a bank or payment-gateway chargeback, the User should contact ShodhShastra and provide a reasonable opportunity to investigate.

Fraudulent, misleading, or abusive chargebacks may result in:

• Account suspension;
• Service cancellation;
• Recovery action;
• Submission of evidence to the bank or payment provider.

This clause does not restrict a User’s lawful payment-dispute rights.

44. Changes to Services

ShodhShastra may add, modify, suspend, or discontinue a service due to:

• Operational needs;
• Legal requirements;
• Security;
• Low availability;
• Third-party changes;
• Academic-integrity concerns;
• Commercial decisions.

Where a discontinued service has already been paid for, ShodhShastra will provide an appropriate replacement, credit, completion arrangement, or refund as applicable.

45. Changes to These Terms

These Terms may be updated to reflect:

• Changes in services;
• Legal or regulatory requirements;
• Security practices;
• Payment policies;
• Academic-integrity standards;
• Operational processes.

The updated date will be displayed at the top of this page.

Material changes may also be communicated through email or dashboard notification.

Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

46. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by the laws of India.

Nothing in these Terms restricts the mandatory rights or jurisdiction available to a consumer under applicable consumer-protection law.

Subject to such mandatory rights, courts located at:

[Insert City, District and State]

shall have jurisdiction over disputes relating to these Terms.

47. Dispute Resolution

Before initiating formal legal proceedings, the parties should attempt to resolve the dispute through written communication and good-faith discussion.

Either party may propose mediation or another mutually agreed dispute-resolution method.

This provision does not prevent a User from approaching a competent consumer commission, regulatory authority, court, or other statutory forum.

48. Severability

Where any provision is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue to apply.

The invalid provision will be interpreted or modified only to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable.

49. No Waiver

Failure to enforce a provision on one occasion does not waive the right to enforce it later.

50. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the following policies, constitute the agreement governing use of ShodhShastra:

• Privacy Policy;
• Refund and Cancellation Policy;
• Academic Integrity Policy;
• Data-Retention and Deletion Policy;
• Conference-specific conditions;
• Consultation Policy;
• Any accepted quotation, proposal, or service agreement.

Where a separately signed written agreement conflicts with these general Terms, the specific written agreement will apply to the relevant service.

51. Contact Details

For questions about these Terms, contact:

ShodhShastra
Website: www.shodhshastra.com
Email: publication@shodhshastra.com
Legal Entity: Shodh Shastra
Registered Address: Chnadigarh