Legal Terms & Policies

About UtsavSaathi

UtsavSaathi is a digital transformation platform designed specifically for community festival mandals and societies. We believe that festivals bring people together, but financial management often brings them stress.

Our mission is to digitize the entire financial lifecycle of a festival - from donation collection and expense tracking to generating audit-ready balance sheets. By replacing manual receipt books with secure digital records, we empower committee members to manage their events with 100% transparency, efficiency, and peace of mind.

1. Definitions and Scope

• Platform: The UtsavSaathi web applications, portal interfaces, databases, and related software tools.
• User: Any registered administrator, committee treasurer, secretary, or volunteer access user.
• Mandal / Society: The community organization or local cultural committee registering for SaaS services.
• Volunteer: An authorized collection agent appointed by the Mandal Admin to log chanda collections.
• Donation (Chanda): Voluntary financial contributions collected from donors and logged on the platform.
• Expense (Kharcha): Outward financial transactions and supplier bills logged for mandal activities.

Scope & Purpose: UtsavSaathi is strictly a technology platform for record-keeping, transparency, and financial ledger management. UtsavSaathi is not a financial institution, credit union, payment gateway, or bank.

2. User Obligations and Account Security

• Authorized Access: Only authorized office bearers (e.g., committee treasurer, president, secretary) are permitted to hold Admin accounts. The registering Mandal is solely responsible for all entries and actions taken by its members or volunteers.
• Account Security: Users must maintain the absolute confidentiality of their login credentials, passwords, and API keys.
• Accuracy of Data: Mandals represent and warrant that all information, donor names, phone numbers, and expense bill images uploaded to the platform are accurate, complete, and legally compliant.
• Age Restriction & Competency: You must be at least 18 years of age and legally competent to enter into a contract under applicable laws to register a Mandal or use UtsavSaathi services. If you are registering on behalf of a Mandal or Society, you represent that you have the legal authority to bind that entity.

3. Financial and Transactional Terms

• Nature of Donations: All contributions logged are voluntary. UtsavSaathi is not responsible for the end-use of collected funds; the Mandal committee bears sole responsibility for utilizing funds in line with their stated cultural/social objectives.
• Payment Gateway Disclaimer: Since third-party payment links and UPI codes are integrated on the platform, UtsavSaathi is not liable for transaction failures, network timeouts, payment delays, or data breaches occurring on the gateway's or bank's side.
• Third-Party Integrations: UtsavSaathi integrates with third-party tools and services (such as WhatsApp APIs, Payment Gateways, and bank UPI infrastructure). We do not control, own, or guarantee the availability, security, or performance of these third-party platforms. Any failures or outages in their services are beyond our liability.
• No-Refund Policy: Donations made to a Mandal through UtsavSaathi UPI options generally cannot be refunded by the platform. Any donor disputes regarding voluntary payments must be resolved directly with the respective Mandal management.
• SaaS Subscription Refund Policy: All Software/SaaS subscription fees (including festival passes and annual packages) are non-refundable once activated. No partial refunds or pro-rated credits will be provided for unused subscription periods or cancelled accounts.

4. Intellectual Property and Usage

UtsavSaathi retains all rights, titles, and intellectual property interest in the software code, interface design layouts, logos, branding, and features. Users are strictly prohibited from copying, reverse-engineering, scraping, or utilizing the platform for any illegal activities, including fraudulent fund collection or money laundering.

5. Limitation of Liability & Service Availability

The platform is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. UtsavSaathi is not liable for indirect damages, lost profits, data losses, or disputes between committee members regarding fund management.

Service Availability & Uptime: UtsavSaathi does not guarantee 100% uninterrupted uptime or flawless performance of the platform. We are not liable for temporary service interruptions, system latency, or data access delays due to scheduled maintenance, host server downtime, internet network failures, or technical issues beyond our control.

Audit Responsibility: While UtsavSaathi helps generate "audit-ready" reports and CSV financial statements, the final legal responsibility for filing income tax returns, audit compliance, and accounting certification lies entirely with the Mandal committee management.

6. Force Majeure

Neither party shall be liable for any failure or delay in performing its obligations under these Terms to the extent that such failure or delay is caused by a Force Majeure event. Force Majeure events include, but are not limited to, acts of God, natural calamities, fire, epidemics, government orders, national emergency, server crashes, internet service provider outages, security breaches, cyberattacks, or other events beyond reasonable control.

7. Term, Termination, and Data Deletion

SaaS access is granted based on the selected subscription term (selected festival-based plans or annual passes). UtsavSaathi reserves the right to suspend or terminate any portal for cause if the user violates local laws, uploads fraudulent bills, or threatens the platform's security.

Data Retention & Suspension: If a Mandal's subscription expires or is suspended for non-payment, UtsavSaathi will preserve the account data for a grace period of 90 days. If the subscription is not renewed within this 90-day grace period, all data, record entries, and uploaded expense bill images will be permanently and irreversibly deleted from our servers.

8. Governing Law and Dispute Resolution

This agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of India. In the event of any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the parties shall first attempt to resolve it through friendly discussions. If unresolved within thirty (30) days, the dispute shall be referred to and resolved by binding arbitration under the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. The seat and venue of arbitration shall be Mumbai, India, and the proceedings shall be conducted in English. Subject to arbitration, any legal actions must be filed exclusively in the competent courts of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

9. Indemnification

The registering Mandal, its administrators, and committee members agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless UtsavSaathi, its developers, and affiliates from and against any claims, losses, damages, liabilities, costs, or legal expenses (including reasonable attorney fees) arising from their financial record-keeping, fund usage, misuse of the platform, violation of these terms, or disputes among committee members, volunteers, or donors.

10. Fair Usage Policy (FUP)

While our Pro and Annual subscription plans offer unlimited donations, receipts, and volunteers, they are strictly subject to fair usage guidelines. The platform must not be used with automated bots, scrapers, API scripts, or spamming mechanisms. UtsavSaathi reserves the right to rate-limit, restrict, or suspend accounts that generate abnormal system loads, threaten server stability, or show abusive activity.

11. Grievance Redressal

In accordance with the Indian Information Technology Act, 2000, and rules made thereunder, the name and contact details of the Grievance Officer are provided below. For any grievances, complaints, or legal queries regarding data, payments, or security, please contact our Grievance Officer at support@utsavsaathi.com.

Privacy Policy

Your privacy is our priority at UtsavSaathi.

1. Data Collection

We collect only the information necessary to provide our services, including committee member contact details, email addresses, donor details, WhatsApp numbers for receipts, and uploaded expense receipts.

2. Data Usage & Security

Your data is used exclusively to provide you with digital dashboards, generate audit reports, and send automated WhatsApp updates and receipts. We employ industry-standard security measures and encryption to keep your data secure. We strictly do not sell, trade, rent, or share user or donor data with any third-party advertisers, marketers, or data brokers.

3. Cloud Storage & Retention

All financial records, bills, and generated receipts are stored securely in a cloud database environment with standard encryption. We adhere to a standard data retention policy of 5 years for active accounts to help mandals comply with long-term audit requirements. For inactive or expired subscription accounts, data is deleted permanently after a grace period of 90 days from the expiration date, as described in our Terms of Service.

4. User Responsibility & Liability Disclaimer

While UtsavSaathi employs robust security measures, the Mandal Admin and users are responsible for protecting account credentials.

5. Grievance Redressal Officer

For any complaints, data access requests, or privacy concerns, users can reach out to our Grievance Officer at support@utsavsaathi.com.

Get In Touch

We are here to help your mandal go digital! For any support, queries, or demo requests, feel free to reach out to us:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Find answers to common questions about UtsavSaathi platform, donation collection, expenses, and security.