Terms of Service

1.Acceptance of these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding legal agreement between you ("you") and Sukhil Babu, a sole proprietor based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India, trading as "DharmaChat" ("DharmaChat", "we", "us", "our").

By creating an account, downloading our mobile application, or otherwise accessing the website at dharmachat.in or any related service (together, the "Service"), you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

These Terms incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy, our Community Standards (set out in §11 below), and any plan-specific or country-specific terms you accept at the time of purchase.

2.Eligibility & Age

To use the Service you must:

• Be at least 13 years old;
• If you are a minor under the law of your jurisdiction (under 18 in India and most other jurisdictions), have the verifiable consent of your parent or legal guardian to enter into these Terms — your parent or guardian is responsible for your use and is bound by these Terms with you;
• Have the legal capacity to enter into a binding contract;
• Not be barred from receiving software services under applicable export-control laws (including, but not limited to, those of India, the United States, and the European Union);
• Not be located in a country subject to a comprehensive sanctions regime that would make the Service unlawful for you to use.

If you are using the Service on behalf of an organisation, you represent that you have the authority to bind that organisation, and "you" includes that organisation.

3.Your Account

You are responsible for:

• Providing accurate registration information and keeping it up to date;
• Maintaining the confidentiality of your password;
• All activity that occurs under your account, whether or not you authorised it;
• Notifying us promptly at legal@dharmachat.in if you suspect any unauthorised access.

One account per person. You may not transfer, sell, or assign your account to anyone else. We may suspend or terminate accounts that share credentials, that are used by bots, or that we reasonably believe were created to circumvent these Terms.

4.The Service We Provide

DharmaChat helps you explore Sanatana Dharma — the body of teachings rooted in the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, the Vedas, and other Hindu scriptures. Today the Service offers, among other things:

• DharmaAI, an AI-powered chat that answers your questions about Hindu scripture and dharmic philosophy;
• Daily shlokas, meditations, and a sadhana check-in to support your daily practice;
• The Sangha (community feed) where signed-in users can post questions and reflections;
• A scriptures library with articles, summaries, and curated learning paths;
• Premium features available via subscription, including expanded daily DharmaAI usage and additional content.

The Service is provided in the form it is — features may be added, changed, or removed. We will give reasonable notice of material changes that affect how you use the Service.

5.DharmaAI — Spiritual Disclaimer

You agree that:

• You will not rely on DharmaAI as the sole source for any spiritually, legally, medically, or financially significant decision.
• DharmaChat does not endorse any particular sampradāya, sect, ācārya, or interpretive tradition above another. Where DharmaAI cites a school of thought, it does so for educational context.
• We may, from time to time, refuse to answer questions that we believe are likely to produce misleading or harmful output, or that violate these Terms.

6.Health & Mental-Health Disclaimer

The Service includes meditation, breathwork, mantra-chanting, and sadhana features. These are not medical or psychological treatment. They are not designed to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. If you have a medical or mental-health condition, are pregnant, or are taking medication, consult a qualified medical professional before beginning any new practice you encounter on the Service.

If you are experiencing a mental-health crisis, the Service is not equipped to help. Please contact your local emergency services or, in India, the iCall helpline (+91 9152987821) or Vandrevala Foundation (1860 2662 345).

7.Subscriptions & Billing

7.1 Premium plans

Some features of the Service are available only with a paid subscription ("Premium"). The plans, pricing, billing cycles, and features available are shown on the in-app Premium screen and at dharmachat.in/premium. Prices are inclusive of applicable Indian GST unless stated otherwise. International prices may be displayed in your local currency, computed by the relevant payment processor.

7.2 Payment processors

We use the following payment processors, depending on your platform:

By subscribing, you also accept the relevant processor's terms.

7.3 Auto-renewal

Subscriptions auto-renew at the end of each billing period at the then-current price unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the renewal date. We will notify you by email of any price increase at least 30 days before it takes effect; if you do not accept the increase, you may cancel before it applies.

7.4 Cancellation

You may cancel at any time:

• Web and Android (Razorpay): in the app under Profile → Subscription → Cancel, or by emailing support@dharmachat.in;
• iOS: through your Apple ID subscription settings (we cannot cancel App Store subscriptions on your behalf — Apple controls this);
• Google Play: through the Play Store subscription settings.

After cancellation, you keep Premium access until the end of the current billing period. We do not pro-rate refunds for unused time after voluntary cancellation, except where the law requires it.

8.Refunds

Refund eligibility depends on where and how you bought your subscription:

• App Store / Google Play: refunds are governed entirely by Apple's or Google's policies. Request a refund through your Apple ID or Google Play account. We cannot issue refunds for App Store or Google Play purchases ourselves.
• Razorpay (web / Android direct): we offer a 7-day full refund for first-time purchasers from the date of payment, no questions asked, by emailing support@dharmachat.in from the email address on your account. Refunds are processed back to the original payment method within 7–14 business days.
• Statutory rights: nothing in these Terms limits the consumer-protection rights you have under the law that applies to you (for Indian users, the Consumer Protection Act 2019; for EU users, the right of withdrawal under Directive 2011/83/EU where applicable).

We may decline refund requests we believe are made in bad faith (for example, repeated requests by the same user, or claims clearly inconsistent with usage logs).

9.Acceptable Use

You agree not to do any of the following while using the Service:

• Break the law, or use the Service in a manner that violates the rights of any third party;
• Post or transmit content that is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, sexually explicit, harassing, or that promotes terrorism, child exploitation, or violence;
• Post content that mocks, ridicules, or attacks any religion, deity, scripture, religious figure, or community — including the dharmic traditions DharmaChat exists to explore — or that incites communal hatred. DharmaChat is a space of reverence; this rule is enforced strictly.;
• Impersonate another person, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person, organisation, lineage, or tradition;
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service, except where the law specifically permits this notwithstanding contract;
• Scrape, crawl, or use automated means to access the Service without our prior written permission;
• Use the Service to develop a competing AI product or to train a third-party AI model on our outputs;
• Bypass, disable, or interfere with security, rate-limiting, or content-moderation features of the Service;
• Upload viruses, malware, or other malicious code;
• Use the Service to send spam, phishing messages, or unsolicited bulk communications;
• Attempt to access another user's account, data, or session;
• Sell, resell, or commercially exploit DharmaAI's outputs or other Service content without our prior written permission.

Violations of this section may result in immediate suspension or termination of your account, with or without notice, and may be reported to law enforcement where the conduct is criminal.

10.Your Content & Licence to Us

"Your Content" means everything you submit, post, share, or transmit through the Service — your community posts, comments, profile information, the prompts you send to DharmaAI, and any feedback you provide.

10.1 You own your Content

You retain all ownership rights in Your Content. We do not claim ownership of anything you create.

10.2 Licence you grant us

To run the Service, we need a licence to use Your Content as needed. By submitting Your Content, you grant DharmaChat a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable, perpetual licence to host, store, copy, reproduce, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, modify (only as needed for technical purposes such as resizing or transcoding), and create derivative works of Your Content, solely:

• To operate, provide, improve, and promote the Service;
• To moderate the community and enforce these Terms;
• To comply with legal obligations.

This licence ends when you delete Your Content from the Service, except: (a) backup copies retained for up to 30 days, (b) anonymised aggregate data, and (c) copies retained as needed to defend legal claims or comply with the law. The licence to use Your Content for promotion (for example, quoting an inspiring community post on our marketing channels) ends immediately on deletion, and we will not initiate any new promotional use after that point.

10.3 Your representations

You represent and warrant that:

• You own Your Content or have the rights necessary to grant the licence above;
• Your Content does not infringe anyone's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or other rights;
• Your Content does not violate any applicable law or these Terms.

10.4 Outputs of DharmaAI

Outputs generated by DharmaAI in response to your prompts ("Outputs") are produced by the underlying AI model. We do not claim copyright ownership in Outputs that are generated specifically for you, but Outputs are not warranted to be original, accurate, or unique to you. Other users may receive substantially similar Outputs to similar prompts. You are responsible for using Outputs lawfully and ethically and for complying with any applicable third-party licence (for example, attribution requirements when quoting public-domain scripture).

11.Community Standards

The Sangha (community feed) is a shared space. To keep it safe, we enforce the following standards. Posts that violate them may be hidden, deleted, or result in account suspension:

• Be respectful. Disagree with ideas, never attack people. No personal attacks, slurs, doxxing, or harassment.
• Stay on-topic. Posts should relate to dharma, scripture, philosophy, sadhana, or community life. Off-topic political content, advertising, and self-promotion are not allowed.
• Honour the traditions. Genuine philosophical disagreement and respectful comparison between dharmic schools are welcome. Mockery of any deity, scripture, sant, or tradition is not.
• No misinformation. Do not present inventions as scripture or fabricate citations to Bhagavad Gita verses, Upanishads, or other sources.
• Protect minors. No content that sexualises, endangers, or exploits children.
• No medical/legal/financial advice. Do not give specific medical, legal, or financial advice you are not qualified to give.
• Original or properly attributed. If you quote a verse, name the source. If you share a translation, name the translator.

You may report a post you believe violates these standards by tapping the post's "⋯" menu and choosing Report. We act on reports as quickly as we reasonably can.

12.Intellectual Property

All right, title, and interest in and to the Service (excluding Your Content and Outputs) — including the DharmaChat name, logo (the gold Om in lotus on maroon), interface design, original written articles, curated content collections, audio recordings, source code, and database structures — are owned by Sukhil Babu / DharmaChat or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other Indian and international intellectual-property laws.

You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, or lease any part of the Service except as expressly permitted by these Terms or with our prior written consent. Quoting short passages of our written articles for personal study, academic purposes, or non-commercial review is permitted with attribution and a link back to the original.

"DharmaChat" is a trade name and brand of Sukhil Babu, used in commerce in India. Unauthorised use is prohibited.

13.Reporting & Takedown

If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright or other intellectual-property right, send a written notice to legal@dharmachat.in with:

1. Your name, postal address, telephone number, and email address;
2. Identification of the work you say has been infringed;
3. Identification of the allegedly infringing material on the Service, with enough detail (URL, post ID, or screenshot) for us to find it;
4. A statement that you have a good-faith belief that the use is not authorised by you, your agent, or the law;
5. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the rights-holder or authorised to act on the rights-holder's behalf;
6. Your physical or electronic signature.

We will review the notice and, if it is valid, remove or restrict access to the material. The user who posted the material may submit a counter-notice; if they do, we will inform you. We may, in our sole discretion, terminate the accounts of users we determine to be repeat infringers.

This Section 13 also applies to notices of unlawful content under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the IT Rules 2021.

14.Suspension & Termination

14.1 By you

You may stop using the Service at any time. To delete your account, follow the steps in §12 of our Privacy Policy.

14.2 By us

We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if:

• You materially breach these Terms (including the Acceptable Use rules in §9 or the Community Standards in §11);
• We are required to do so by law, court order, or regulator request;
• We reasonably believe your activity creates a risk of legal liability for us, our users, or third parties;
• We discontinue the Service or any portion of it (we will give 30 days' notice where reasonably possible).

On termination, your licence to use the Service ends immediately. Provisions of these Terms that, by their nature, should survive termination — including §10.2 (the licence you granted us, to the extent of pre-deletion content), §12 (Intellectual Property), §16 (Disclaimers), §17 (Limitation of Liability), §18 (Indemnification), §19 (Governing Law), §20 (Dispute Resolution), and §21 (General) — survive termination.

15.Changes to the Service or these Terms

The Service evolves. We may add, change, or remove features at any time. For material changes that reduce a feature you actively rely on, we will give reasonable notice in-app.

We may also update these Terms. When we do, we will post the updated version at this URL with a new "Last Updated" date and version number. For material changes, we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email and in-app banner before they take effect. If you continue to use the Service after the updated Terms take effect, you accept them; if you do not accept them, your remedy is to stop using the Service and delete your account.

16.Disclaimers

17.Limitation of Liability

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. In those jurisdictions, the limitations above apply to the maximum extent permitted by law.

18.Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Sukhil Babu, DharmaChat, and our officers, employees, contractors, and agents from and against any third-party claim, demand, loss, damage, liability, cost, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:

• Your access to or use of the Service;
• Your Content;
• Your breach of these Terms;
• Your violation of any law or any right of a third party.

We reserve the right, at our own expense, to assume the exclusive defence and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by you, in which case you will cooperate with us in asserting any available defences.

19.Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These Terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims), are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles.

Subject to §20 (Dispute Resolution & Arbitration), the courts of Bengaluru, Karnataka, India have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with these Terms.

The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

20.Dispute Resolution & Arbitration

20.1 Notify us first

If you have a dispute with us, please email legal@dharmachat.in first, with a clear description of the issue and what you would like resolved. We will try in good faith to resolve the dispute informally within 30 days. Most issues are resolved at this step.

20.2 Binding arbitration

If the dispute is not resolved informally, you and we agree that the dispute will be resolved by binding arbitration under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (India), on the following terms:

• Number of arbitrators: one (1), appointed by mutual agreement; failing agreement within 30 days, by the High Court of Karnataka under §11 of the Act;
• Seat & venue: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India;
• Language: English;
• Procedural rules: the rules and procedures of the Mumbai Centre for International Arbitration (MCIA), as applicable, except as modified here;
• Award: the arbitrator's award is final and binding and may be entered as a judgment in any court of competent jurisdiction.

20.3 Exceptions

Either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in the courts of Bengaluru to protect intellectual-property rights or to address unauthorised use of the Service, without first invoking arbitration. Either party may also bring an individual action in a small-claims court of competent jurisdiction.

20.4 No class actions

To the extent permitted by applicable law, you and we agree that any dispute resolution proceedings (whether in arbitration or court) will be conducted only on an individual basis and not as a class, consolidated, or representative action. The arbitrator may not consolidate the claims of more than one person and may not preside over any form of class proceeding. If this clause is held unenforceable for a particular claim, that claim must proceed in court rather than arbitration; the rest of this §20 still applies to all other claims.

21.General Provisions

• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any additional terms you accept at purchase, are the entire agreement between you and DharmaChat regarding the Service and supersede any prior agreements.
• Severability. If any provision of these Terms is held invalid or unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid; the remaining provisions remain in full force.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms or your account without our prior written consent. We may assign these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, on notice to you.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure to perform caused by events beyond our reasonable control (acts of God, internet outage, government action, war, civil unrest, pandemic, labour dispute, sub-processor outage).
• Notices. We may give you notice by email or by posting in the app. You may give us notice by emailing legal@dharmachat.in.
• Headings. Headings are for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.
• Language. The English version of these Terms is the controlling version. Translations are provided for convenience.

22.Apple App Store — Additional Terms

If you use the iOS version of DharmaChat downloaded from the Apple App Store, the following additional terms apply between you and Apple Inc. ("Apple"). You acknowledge that:

• These Terms are between you and DharmaChat only — not with Apple. Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content.
• Your use of the iOS app is governed both by these Terms and by Apple's Usage Rules in the App Store Terms.
• The licence granted to you for the iOS app is limited to a non-transferable licence to use the app on Apple-branded products you own or control, as permitted by Apple's Usage Rules.
• Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the iOS app.
• If the iOS app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, who will refund the purchase price (if any). To the maximum extent permitted by law, Apple has no other warranty obligation.
• Apple is not responsible for product claims, including (i) product liability claims, (ii) any claim that the iOS app fails to conform to any legal or regulatory requirement, or (iii) claims arising under consumer-protection or similar legislation.
• If a third party claims that the iOS app or your use of it infringes their intellectual property, DharmaChat (not Apple) is solely responsible for the investigation, defence, settlement, and discharge of that claim.
• You must comply with all applicable third-party terms when using the iOS app.
• Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms, and on your acceptance of these Terms, Apple has the right (and is deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these Terms against you as a third-party beneficiary.
• You represent that (a) you are not located in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo or designated as a "terrorist supporting" country, and (b) you are not on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

23.Contact Us

For any question about these Terms:

• Legal & grievances: legal@dharmachat.in
• Privacy: privacy@dharmachat.in
• General & founder: sukhil@dharmachat.in
• Postal: Sukhil Babu, DharmaChat, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India (full address available on lawful request)