Legal
Terms of Service
These Terms govern your use of SocietySeWA (societysewa.in) — run by Expert Jurist LLP and Happy People Foundation for their respective services — and the Happy People Foundation community site.
Effective: 1 January 2025 · Last updated: 24 October 2026
Not Legal Advice
Documents generated on SocietySeWA are standard administrative forms and are not a substitute for professional legal advice. You are responsible for verifying their suitability for your specific situation.
1. About These Terms
These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the SocietySeWA platform, run by Expert Jurist LLP ("EJL", a law firm) and Happy People Foundation ("HPF", a registered Section 8 company) — together "we", "us", "our" — for their respective services, namely: — societysewa.in ("SocietySeWA" or "the Portal") — HPF delivers the free services on the Portal (MCS Act forms, Bye-Laws Browser, Smart Wizard, Compliance Calendar, and the society directory) as part of its social-impact mission; Expert Jurist LLP delivers and bills for all paid professional services offered through the Portal (Appointment Booking, eManager, MCS Act Training) — happypeople.foundation ("the Community Site") — HPF's own community and NGO programme website, operated independently by HPF By accessing or using either platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, please discontinue use immediately. Expert Jurist LLP (LLPIN AAJ-5210; GSTIN 27AAGFE4433K1ZC) is a law firm and the owner and operator of the SocietySeWA platform. Happy People Foundation is a registered Section 8 company operating from Office No C-216/218, Tower 8, International Technology Centre, CBD Belapur Station Complex, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai — 400614, Maharashtra, India, and is Expert Jurist LLP's partner NGO for the free, social-impact services delivered on SocietySeWA. HPF holds no ownership interest in the Portal, its brand, or its content.
2. Eligibility
To use SocietySeWA, you must: — Be at least 18 years of age — Be a resident of India, or a member or office-bearer of an Indian co-operative housing society registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 — Provide accurate and complete registration information — Not be barred from using online services under any applicable Indian law By registering, you represent and warrant that you meet all of the above conditions.
3. Services Provided
SocietySeWA offers the following services: Free Services (delivered by Happy People Foundation, EJL's partner NGO, as part of SocietySeWA's social-impact mission): — Generation of all forms as per the bye-laws (membership application, nomination, transfer, indemnity bonds, IT undertakings, etc.) — Bye-Laws Browser — searchable database of all 175 Maharashtra Model Bye-Laws 2014 — Smart Wizard — guided multi-step document generation based on your scenario — Compliance Calendar — key deadlines for society committees — Society Directory — searchable listing of housing societies Paid Services (delivered and billed directly by Expert Jurist LLP, the platform owner): — Appointment Booking — scheduled consultations with EJL's advocates and society-management experts — eManager — fully remote society management (separate service agreement applies) — MCS Act Training — expert-led certification courses (separate enrolment terms apply) All free services are delivered by HPF on an "as available" basis. Paid services are contracted directly with Expert Jurist LLP; HPF is not a party to, and bears no liability for, those engagements. EJL and HPF each reserve the right to modify, suspend, or discontinue their respective services at any time with reasonable notice where possible.
4. Not Legal Advice
IMPORTANT: SocietySeWA is an informational and administrative tool. Nothing on this platform — including generated forms, bye-law summaries, compliance checklists, or any content — constitutes legal advice. The MCS Act forms generated on this platform are standard-format documents based on the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 and the MCS Model Bye-Laws 2014. Their acceptance by your housing society, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, or any other authority is not guaranteed and depends on the specific circumstances of each case. You are solely responsible for: — Verifying the accuracy of all information you enter into forms — Ensuring documents meet the requirements of your specific society and jurisdiction — Obtaining independent legal advice where your matter is complex or disputed HPF and SocietySeWA expressly disclaim all liability for any loss or damage arising from reliance on information provided through our platforms.
5. User Accounts
When you create a SocietySeWA account: — You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials — You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account — You must notify us immediately at support@societysewa.in if you suspect unauthorised access to your account — You must not share your account with other individuals — You must not create multiple accounts to circumvent any platform restrictions HPF reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or that are used fraudulently or abusively.
6. Acceptable Use
You agree to use our platforms only for lawful purposes and in accordance with these Terms. You must not: — Use the platforms to generate fraudulent, forged, or misleading legal documents — Commercially resell, sublicence, or redistribute forms or platform content without written permission from HPF — Use automated scripts, bots, scrapers, or bulk generation tools — Attempt to reverse-engineer, disassemble, or tamper with any part of the platform — Upload or transmit malware, viruses, or harmful code — Impersonate any person or entity, including HPF staff or society office-bearers — Use the platform in any way that could damage, overburden, or impair its infrastructure — Collect other users' personal data from the platform Violations may result in immediate account suspension and, where appropriate, reporting to law enforcement authorities.
7. Intellectual Property
The SocietySeWA name, logo, website design, code, and all original content (including bye-law summaries, platform text, form commentary, and educational materials) are the intellectual property of Expert Jurist LLP, protected under Indian copyright law. Happy People Foundation is Expert Jurist LLP's partner NGO, contributing content and delivering the Portal's free, social-impact services, and holds no ownership interest in the Portal, its brand, or its content. The underlying MCS Act forms and bye-law text are based on legislation and official government publications that are in the public domain. However, our formatting, indexing, commentary, translations, and platform presentation of this content remain proprietary. You may use generated documents for their intended personal or society-management purpose. You may not reproduce, publish, or commercially distribute platform content or design elements without written permission.
8. Database Protection and Automated Access
8.1 The Directory. The directory of cooperative housing societies on this Platform (the "Directory") has been compiled by Expert Jurist LLP (brand "SocietySeWA") from publicly available sources, including the National Cooperative Database, and has been selected, structured, arranged by district and pincode, supplemented and presented by us. We claim no ownership of the underlying facts. To the extent the selection and arrangement of the Directory, and any material we have written or added to it, are original, they are protected as a literary work (a compilation, including a computer database) under the Copyright Act, 1957, and we own that copyright. Contact numbers and email addresses are masked; you must not unmask, reconstruct or attempt to obtain them through the Platform. 8.2 Limited licence. You are granted a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to view the Directory through the Platform's ordinary web pages, in a standard browser operated by a human (including assistive technology used by that human), for your own personal use or the internal purposes of your society or organisation, and not for resale or redistribution. No other licence is granted. Our permission for any access ends where this clause is breached. 8.3 No automated access. You must not access the Platform or the Directory by any bot, crawler, spider, scraper, headless or automated browser, script or other automated means, or help others to do so. You must not (a) disguise, spoof, forge or rotate your user-agent, browser identity or other identifying information in order to evade detection, rate limits or blocks; (b) use proxies, VPNs, residential proxy networks or IP rotation to evade any rate limit or block, or to conceal automated or bulk access; or (c) circumvent or evade any rate limit, block, CAPTCHA, access control or technical measure. Ordinary use of a VPN or privacy tool by a human visitor is not a breach of this sub-clause. Search-engine crawlers and link-preview services that truthfully identify themselves and comply with our robots.txt are excepted. 8.4 No extraction or commercial use. Without our prior written consent you must not extract, copy, download, store, systematically retrieve, compile, republish, sell, license or otherwise make available all or a substantial part of the Directory (manually or otherwise), or use it, or any part of it, to build lead lists, for marketing or solicitation, or to create, populate or improve a database or service that competes with ours. As between you and us, and for the purposes of this clause only, repeated or systematic extraction of parts that are not individually substantial is treated as extraction of a substantial part. 8.5 Marker records. The Directory may contain deliberately inserted control or marker records (including fictitious or altered entries) to detect copying. We may rely on the presence of any such record in third-party material as evidence of copying in any proceeding. We are not obliged to identify marker records, and you should verify any entry independently before relying on it. 8.6 Monitoring and blocking. We may monitor traffic, apply rate limits, and suspend, throttle or block any user, account, device or IP address, or alter or withdraw the Directory, at any time without notice where we suspect a breach of this clause. 8.7 Remedies. Without limiting other rights, we may seek injunctions (including interim and ex parte relief), damages, an account and surrender of profits, delivery up or destruction of copied data and derivative material, disclosure of recipients, and costs as the court may allow, and may pursue remedies under the Copyright Act, 1957, and under the Information Technology Act, 2000 before the authority or court competent under that Act, including criminal complaints where applicable. Rights are cumulative. 8.8 Acceptance. By accessing or using the Platform you agree to this clause. If you do not agree, do not access the Platform. 8.9 Governing law and courts. This clause is governed by the laws of India. Subject to any law that gives a particular forum non-waivable jurisdiction, the competent courts at Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra shall have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising from it, save that we may also bring proceedings in any other court or before any authority having jurisdiction.
८. डेटाबेस संरक्षण आणि स्वयंचलित प्रवेश
८.१ निर्देशिका. या प्लॅटफॉर्मवरील सहकारी गृहनिर्माण संस्थांची निर्देशिका ("निर्देशिका") एक्स्पर्ट ज्युरिस्ट एलएलपी (ब्रँड "सोसायटीसेवा") यांनी राष्ट्रीय सहकारी डेटाबेस (National Cooperative Database) यांसह सार्वजनिकरीत्या उपलब्ध स्रोतांतून संकलित केली असून तिची निवड, रचना, जिल्हा व पिनकोडनुसार मांडणी, पूरक माहितीची भर व सादरीकरण आम्ही केले आहे. मूळ तथ्यांवर आम्ही मालकी सांगत नाही. निर्देशिकेची निवड व मांडणी, तसेच आम्ही लिहिलेली किंवा भर घातलेली सामग्री, जितपत मौलिक (original) आहे, तितपत ती कॉपीराइट कायदा, १९५७ (Copyright Act, 1957) अन्वये साहित्यिक कृती (संकलन, संगणक डेटाबेससह) म्हणून संरक्षित आहे व तो कॉपीराइट आमचा आहे. संपर्क क्रमांक व ईमेल झाकलेले (masked) आहेत; ते उघड करणे, त्यांची पुनर्रचना करणे किंवा प्लॅटफॉर्मद्वारे ते मिळविण्याचा प्रयत्न करणे यास मनाई आहे. ८.२ मर्यादित परवाना. प्लॅटफॉर्मच्या सामान्य वेबपृष्ठांवर, मानवी वापरकर्त्याने चालविलेल्या सर्वसाधारण ब्राउझरद्वारे (त्या व्यक्तीने वापरलेल्या सहाय्यक/सुलभता तंत्रज्ञानासह), तुमच्या स्वतःच्या वैयक्तिक वापरासाठी किंवा तुमच्या संस्थेच्या/संघटनेच्या अंतर्गत कामासाठी, पुनर्विक्री किंवा पुनर्वितरणाखेरीज, निर्देशिका पाहण्यासाठी तुम्हाला मर्यादित, रद्द करण्याजोगा, अनन्य नसलेला व हस्तांतरणीय नसलेला परवाना दिला आहे. इतर कोणताही परवाना दिलेला नाही. या कलमाचा भंग झाल्यास आमची प्रवेशाची परवानगी तेथेच संपते. ८.३ स्वयंचलित प्रवेशास मनाई. कोणताही बॉट, क्रॉलर, स्पायडर, स्क्रॅपर, हेडलेस किंवा स्वयंचलित ब्राउझर, स्क्रिप्ट किंवा अन्य स्वयंचलित साधन वापरून प्लॅटफॉर्मवर किंवा निर्देशिकेत प्रवेश करता कामा नये, तसेच इतरांना त्यासाठी साहाय्य करता कामा नये. तसेच (अ) शोध, दरमर्यादा किंवा बंदी टाळण्याच्या हेतूने यूजर-एजंट, ब्राउझर ओळख किंवा इतर ओळखदर्शक माहिती लपविणे, खोटी दाखविणे, बनावट करणे किंवा सतत बदलणे; (ब) कोणतीही दरमर्यादा किंवा बंदी टाळण्यासाठी, किंवा स्वयंचलित अथवा मोठ्या प्रमाणातील प्रवेश लपविण्यासाठी प्रॉक्सी, व्हीपीएन, रेसिडेन्शियल प्रॉक्सी नेटवर्क किंवा आयपी बदलत राहणे; किंवा (क) कोणतीही दरमर्यादा (rate limit), बंदी (block), कॅप्चा, प्रवेश-नियंत्रण किंवा तांत्रिक उपाय टाळणे किंवा त्यांना बगल देणे, यास मनाई आहे. मानवी अभ्यागताने सर्वसाधारणपणे व्हीपीएन किंवा गोपनीयता साधन वापरणे हा या उप-कलमाचा भंग नाही. स्वतःची खरी ओळख देणारे व आमच्या robots.txt चे पालन करणारे सर्च-इंजिन क्रॉलर व लिंक-प्रिव्ह्यू सेवा यास अपवाद आहेत. ८.४ उतारा व व्यावसायिक वापरास मनाई. आमच्या पूर्व लेखी संमतीशिवाय निर्देशिकेचा संपूर्ण किंवा भरीव भाग (हाताने किंवा अन्य रीतीने) उतरवून घेणे, प्रत करणे, डाउनलोड करणे, साठविणे, पद्धतशीरपणे मिळविणे, संकलित करणे, पुनःप्रकाशित करणे, विकणे, परवान्याने देणे किंवा अन्यथा उपलब्ध करून देणे; किंवा निर्देशिकेचा/तिच्या कोणत्याही भागाचा वापर संभाव्य ग्राहक-याद्या (lead lists) तयार करण्यासाठी, विपणन किंवा याचनेसाठी, किंवा आमच्याशी स्पर्धा करणारा डेटाबेस/सेवा तयार करण्यासाठी, भरण्यासाठी वा सुधारण्यासाठी करणे, यास मनाई आहे. तुमच्या व आमच्यातील कराराच्या हेतूपुरते, स्वतंत्रपणे भरीव नसलेल्या भागांचा वारंवार किंवा पद्धतशीर उतारा हा भरीव भागाचा उतारा मानला जाईल. ८.५ चिन्हांकित नोंदी. प्रत शोधण्यासाठी निर्देशिकेत जाणीवपूर्वक घातलेल्या नियंत्रण/चिन्हांकित नोंदी (काल्पनिक किंवा बदललेल्या नोंदींसह) असू शकतात. अशी नोंद तृतीय पक्षाच्या साहित्यात आढळल्यास, ती नक्कल केल्याचा पुरावा म्हणून कोणत्याही कार्यवाहीत आम्ही तिच्यावर अवलंबून राहू शकतो. चिन्हांकित नोंदी कोणत्या ते सांगण्यास आम्ही बांधील नाही; कोणत्याही नोंदीवर अवलंबून राहण्यापूर्वी तुम्ही ती स्वतंत्रपणे पडताळावी. ८.६ देखरेख व अवरोध. या कलमाचा भंग झाल्याचा संशय असल्यास आम्ही कधीही, पूर्वसूचनेशिवाय, रहदारीवर देखरेख करू, दरमर्यादा लावू, तसेच कोणताही वापरकर्ता, खाते, उपकरण किंवा आयपी पत्ता निलंबित, मंद किंवा अवरुद्ध करू शकतो, आणि निर्देशिका बदलू किंवा मागे घेऊ शकतो. ८.७ उपाय. इतर हक्कांना बाध न येता, आम्ही मनाईहुकूम (अंतरिम व एकतर्फी सवलतीसह), नुकसानभरपाई, हिशोब व नफ्याचे समर्पण, प्रत केलेला डेटा व त्यावरून तयार साहित्य ताब्यात देणे/नष्ट करणे, प्राप्तकर्त्यांचा तपशील उघड करणे, तसेच न्यायालय मंजूर करील तो खर्च, यासाठी दाद मागू शकतो; आणि कॉपीराइट कायदा, १९५७ (Copyright Act, 1957) अन्वये, तसेच माहिती तंत्रज्ञान कायदा, २००० (Information Technology Act, 2000) अन्वये त्या कायद्याखालील सक्षम प्राधिकारी किंवा न्यायालयासमोर, जेथे लागू असेल तेथे फौजदारी तक्रारीसह, कार्यवाही करू शकतो. हे सर्व हक्क एकत्रितपणे लागू राहतील. ८.८ स्वीकृती. प्लॅटफॉर्मवर प्रवेश करून किंवा तो वापरून तुम्ही या कलमास संमती देता. संमत नसल्यास प्लॅटफॉर्मवर प्रवेश करता कामा नये. ८.९ लागू कायदा व न्यायालये. हे कलम भारतीय कायद्यांनुसार चालेल. एखाद्या विशिष्ट मंचाला कायद्याने दिलेल्या, त्याग न करता येणाऱ्या अधिकारक्षेत्राच्या अधीन राहून, या कलमातून उद्भवणाऱ्या कोणत्याही वादावर नवी मुंबई, महाराष्ट्र येथील सक्षम न्यायालयांना अनन्य अधिकारक्षेत्र असेल; मात्र आम्ही अधिकारक्षेत्र असलेल्या इतर कोणत्याही न्यायालयात किंवा प्राधिकाऱ्यासमोरही कार्यवाही करू शकतो.
9. Payments
Paid services (appointments, eManager subscription, training courses, digital downloads) are billed and delivered by Expert Jurist LLP. Individuals and professionals pay online through Razorpay, a licensed payment aggregator, and agree to Razorpay's Terms of Service when they do. Societies pay Expert Jurist LLP for eManager, legal services and agreement or plan invoices only by cheque or NEFT/RTGS; our office shares the bank details and records the payment when it is received. Digital products on the store, including those bought for a society, are paid online through Razorpay. By making a payment, you enter into a direct service agreement with Expert Jurist LLP, not with HPF. All prices are in Indian Rupees (INR) and are inclusive of applicable taxes unless stated otherwise. Expert Jurist LLP reserves the right to change pricing for paid services with reasonable advance notice. Price changes do not apply to services already paid for. Digital products are non-refundable. For our Refund Policy, please see the separate Refund Policy page at societysewa.in/refund.
10. Digital Downloads and Download Links
When you buy a digital product — the SocietySeWA AGM Toolkit, an e-book, a formats pack, or any other file sold on this site — the purchase is attached to the email address you paid with, and that address is what gives you access to it. Your library. Everything you have bought can be opened at societysewa.in/library by proving you hold the address the order was placed with: either by signing in to a SocietySeWA account whose email has been verified, or by asking us to email you a link that opens it. That link works once and lasts thirty minutes, and it is sent only to the address entered — never to any other. Downloads from your library are not limited by any link and do not run out, subject only to a daily allowance per address, currently 20 downloads across all products, which resets each day and exists solely to prevent an account being operated as a public mirror. Download links by email. You also receive one or more direct download links by email, and the same links appear on screen immediately after payment. Each download link may be used a maximum of 5 (five) times. The limit attaches to the link, not to you. A download link carries no password and works for whoever holds it, so a link that is forwarded once would otherwise become an unlimited public copy of a paid product. Running out of downloads does not affect your purchase. On the product page, under "Already bought it?", enter the email address you paid with: a fresh link, with a fresh allowance of five downloads, is sent to that address at once and free of charge. You may ask for a replacement whenever you genuinely need one. The replacement is sent only to the address recorded on the order and never to the address typed into the form, so a link that has been passed on cannot be used to obtain a live one. Writing to support@societysewa.in with your payment ID has the same result. A download link is in any event valid for no longer than one year from the date it is issued. This is a limit on the link and not a promise about how long any product remains on sale. Please save the file when you download it. We keep a record of each use of a download link: the date and time, the IP address the download was requested from, the browser that requested it, and which file was asked for. We keep this record to answer questions about delivery, to resolve disputes about what was or was not supplied, and to detect links being circulated. It is a record of requests made to our servers, not proof that a file was successfully saved on any device. We retain it for as long as we retain the order record, and we will give you the record for your own purchase on request. None of this alters your licence. A digital product is licensed to the purchasing society or individual for its own use. Redistribution, resale, or public posting of the file or of the download link is not permitted.
11. Limitation of Liability
To the maximum extent permitted by applicable Indian law, HPF and Expert Jurist LLP shall not be liable for: — Any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages — Loss of data, income, profits, goodwill, or business opportunities — Any damage resulting from reliance on forms or information generated through the platform — Any interruption, suspension, or discontinuation of services — Any unauthorised access to or alteration of your data despite our security measures Our aggregate liability to you for any claim arising from your use of the free platform shall not exceed the total amount paid by you to HPF (if any) in the twelve months preceding the claim. Our aggregate liability for any claim arising from a paid service shall not exceed the total amount paid by you to Expert Jurist LLP for that service in the twelve months preceding the claim. These limitations apply even if HPF or Expert Jurist LLP has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
12. Third-Party Links
Our platforms may contain links to third-party websites, including government portals, regulatory bodies, and partner organisations. These links are provided for your convenience only. HPF does not endorse, control, or assume responsibility for the content, privacy practices, or accuracy of any third-party website. Your use of third-party sites is entirely at your own risk and subject to their respective terms and policies.
13. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of India. Any dispute arising from or relating to these Terms or your use of our platforms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts at Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. We encourage you to contact us in the first instance at support@societysewa.in to resolve any concern informally before initiating formal proceedings.
14. Changes to These Terms
HPF may update these Terms at any time. When we make material changes, we will notify registered users by email and update the effective date on this page. Continued use of the platforms after updated Terms are posted constitutes your acceptance. If you do not agree with any revised Terms, your sole remedy is to stop using the platforms and delete your account.
15. Contact
For questions about these Terms: Expert Jurist LLP (GSTIN 27AAGFE4433K1ZC) & Happy People Foundation — SocietySeWA Office No C-216/218, Tower 8, International Technology Centre, CBD Belapur Station Complex, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai — 400614 Email: support@societysewa.in Phone: 022-49791116 You may also reach Expert Jurist LLP directly at expertjurist.com, or Happy People Foundation at happypeople.foundation.
Questions about these Terms?
Email support@societysewa.in and we will respond within 5 working days.