Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms & Legal Binding Effect

By accessing, browsing, registering on, or transacting across the web portal learningbuddha.in, the Learning Buddha Learning Management System (LMS), real-time virtual classrooms, interactive IVR telephony channels, or associated digital services (collectively, the “Platform”), you enter into a legally valid and enforceable contract with Learning Buddha.

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) explicitly govern all participating stakeholders across six recognized platform roles:

• Students / Learners (and their Parents or Lawful Guardians where applicable);
• Counselees (clients seeking personal, marital, career, or mental health consultations);
• Teachers, Tutors, Educators, and Outbound Corporate Trainers;
• Professional Certified Counsellors and Independent Consultants;
• Sales Counsellors, Demo Coordinators, and Business Development Executives; and
• Platform Administrators, Super Admins, Hiring Admins, and Quality Auditors.

Registering an account, clicking “I Agree”, booking a class or consultation, accepting a demo or sales lead, or executing a financial transaction constitutes a valid electronic signature under the Information Technology Act, 2000. If you do not agree unconditionally to these Terms, you must immediately terminate access to and use of the Platform.

2. Legal Entity & Platform Scope of Services

The Platform is owned, developed, and maintained by Learning Buddha (GSTIN: 19ARZPV8189R1ZQ), headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Learning Buddha operates an integrated digital infrastructure delivering:

• Live Interactive Academic Tutoring: 1:1 and 1:Many online live classes covering K-12 school curricula, college subjects, competitive entrance preparation, language mastery, and personality development.
• Practice Classes & Diagnostic Assessments: Structured practice modules integrating interactive digital whiteboards, homework photo uploads, automatic progress tracking, and structured teacher evaluations every 5 classes.
• Interactive Workshops: 1:Many educational masterclasses and skill-building cohorts.
• Corporate Outbound Training & Quizzing: Professional leadership development, experiential workplace simulations, and inter-school / corporate quiz tournaments.
• Professional Tele-Counselling: Elective, confidential consultations across Pre-Marital & Relationship Counselling, Student Career Guidance, Parenting Support, Workplace EAP, Lifestyle & Nutrition, and Legal Advice.
• Curriculum Library & Digital Goods: Licensed e-books, worksheets, diagnostic papers, and proprietary syllabus materials.

3. Critical Medical & Mental Health Emergency Disclaimer

4. Platform Identifiers, Account Security & Session Inactivity

To protect individual privacy and maintain operational traceability, all platform members are allocated unique, anonymized system identifiers: Student ID, Teacher ID, Counselee ID (e.g., CB-XXXXXX), Sales Counsellor ID, and Admin ID. These identifiers must be cited in all booking confirmations, invoice receipts, support queries, and billing disputes.

Users are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their login credentials, passwords, and OTP authentication factors. Any action initiated from an authenticated profile is legally deemed to have been executed by the registered account holder.

5. Universal Anti-Circumvention Policy & Strict User Code of Conduct

To safeguard counselee confidentiality, protect child learners, enforce encryption, and prevent financial fraud, all users (students, counselees, teachers, counsellors, and sales personnel) are strictly prohibited from:

• Sharing personal telephone numbers, personal email addresses, WhatsApp contact details, or private social media profiles in chat boxes, case notes, uploaded briefs, shared whiteboards, or live video/audio calls.
• Soliciting, negotiating, offering, or accepting direct off-platform payments, cash transfers, direct UPI payments, or bank account transfers.
• Attempting to establish a private commercial tutoring, training, or counselling engagement outside the Learning Buddha Platform.

Enforcement & Sanctions: Any detected circumvention or attempted off-platform solicitation results in immediate system alerts, immediate account suspension, forfeiture of accrued platform earnings or wallet balances, and permanent expulsion under our Zero-Tolerance Disciplinary Policy.

6. Intellectual Property Rights & Digital Materials License

All proprietary curricula, curriculum codification structures (e.g., LB-1O-SCH-CLS6...), LMS proprietary software source code, visual UI layouts, brand trademarks, logos, quiz repositories, diagnostic tests, worksheets, and digital e-books are the exclusive intellectual property of Learning Buddha.

Users are granted a limited, personal, revocable, non-transferable, and non-exclusive license to access educational materials solely for individual, non-commercial learning or assigned instructional delivery. No user may record, screen-capture, download, reverse engineer, reproduce, republish, resell, or distribute any platform content without prior written permission from Learning Buddha.

7. Dedicated Covenants for Students / Learners & Guardians

These covenants govern all enrolled students, learners, and their supervising parents or legal guardians:

• Hardware & Readiness Standards: Students must enable their camera and microphone prior to joining classes. For an uninterrupted experience, students are required to join from a PC, Laptop with working camera, or Tablet at least 5 minutes before scheduled class time.
• Strict 48-Hour Leave Policy: Planned leaves must be submitted via the LMS portal at least 48 hours in advance. Leave requests attempted in less than 48 hours are rejected by the system with the error: “Leave request cannot be raised in under 48 hours. You would be marked as ‘Student Absent’ if you do not attend the class on the scheduled date which might impact your Learner’s Score.”
• Class Schedule Extension: When a planned leave is approved (≥ 48 hours), class reminder calls are paused, the teacher’s calendar is freed, and an extended schedule is prepared without deducting class credits. Unnotified absences are marked as “Student Absent” and counted as consumed.
• Substitute Teacher Selection: When a teacher is on planned leave, students receive an interactive prompt:
  • Selecting “YES” prompts Administration to assign a verified substitute teacher so class continues on schedule.
  • Selecting “NO” cleanly pauses the class, and the session is rescheduled under the student’s trusted regular teacher upon their return.
• Practice Classes & Homework: Students must submit assignments using the interactive whiteboard or photo uploads. Submissions are reviewed by the teacher and automatically update practice class counters.
• PII Masking on Uploads: Students must verify that personal contact details are completely masked on all uploaded school test papers or study notes.

8. Dedicated Covenants for Teachers / Educators / Trainers

These covenants govern all academic tutors, subject specialists, and outbound corporate trainers:

• Mandatory KYC Verification: Prior to conducting demo sessions or paid classes, teachers must submit valid PAN cards, government photo IDs, address proofs, bank details, and degree certificates for Administrative approval.
• Demo SLA (3 Business Hours): Accepted leads from the Demo Pool must be contacted within 3 business hours (operating hours: 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM). Missing this SLA triggers a pop-up warning, marks a strike on the Teacher Discipline Page, and returns the demo to the pool under “Urgent Demos Missed Action by Previous Teacher”. Demos cannot be cherry-picked.
• Mandatory Camera Enforcement: Once a teacher joins a live virtual classroom, the system permanently locks the camera to ON. Teachers are technically barred from switching off their video feed during class; audio mute/unmute is permitted when necessary.
• Confidential Role-Specific Compensation & Payout Alignment: Commercial compensation structures for demos, regular academic classes, and workshops are strictly confidential and governed by role-specific onboarding agreements shared directly with each verified educator. Payouts across all eligible roles are governed by the universal monthly verification and disbursement protocol (verification window from 1st 12:00 AM to 5th 11:59 PM; automatic confirmation at 6th 12:00 AM to Admin for approval; bank disbursement on the 10th of the following month or the next working day if the 10th is a bank holiday; and a minimum monthly disbursement threshold of Rs. 1,500, below which balances carry forward to the next month’s payout).
• Teacher Leave & Discipline: Leaves must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance. Unplanned absences are marked as “Teacher Absent” and impact teacher ratings. Teachers must submit progress feedback for each student every 5 classes.

9. Dedicated Covenants for Counselees (Clients)

These covenants govern all clients seeking personal, pre-marital, relationship, career, lifestyle, or legal tele-counselling:

• Confidentiality & Anonymity: Counselees are identified solely by their Counselee ID (e.g., CB-XXXXXX). Phone numbers and email coordinates are encrypted at rest and permanently masked across administrative and practitioner displays.
• Mandatory PII Masking Consent Gate: Prior to uploading any reference case brief, personal history, or medical file, counselees must confirm an unskippable prompt verifying that all personal contact details (phone, email, home address) have been expunged or blacked out.
• Bundle Discounts: Enrolling in bundles of 3 or more counseling sessions qualifies for a 15% multi-session discount.
• Rescheduling Workflow: Reschedule requests must be submitted via the “Request Reschedule” button. Requests do not take effect in real time and require counselor and administrative confirmation.
• 48-Hour Download Purge Architecture: Post-session video download links emailed to the counselee expire after exactly 48 hours. After 48 hours, distribution copies are permanently purged from external servers. In-portal streaming remains accessible via signed, expiring tokens without local file saving capability.

10. Dedicated Covenants for Professional Counsellors

These covenants govern all verified professional counsellors, psychological consultants, and legal advisors:

• Professional Credentials & Prescriptions: Counsellors operate as independent verified practitioners. Prescriptions and consultation notes must carry the practitioner’s verified qualification, specialization, and statutory council registration number, with personal phone, email, and clinic address strictly omitted.
• Confidentiality & Case Notes: Counsellors must maintain absolute client confidentiality. Clinical notes, diagnoses, and session records must never be exported, published, or discussed off-platform.
• Financial Segregation & Confidential Compensation: Counsellors are compensated in accordance with confidential, role-specific commercial terms shared during practitioner onboarding; counselee booking fees remain masked from the counsellor. From the 3rd session onward for the same client, payouts automatically factor the 15% multi-session bundle discount into calculation. All counsellor payouts follow the platform-wide monthly verification and disbursement schedule (1st 12:00 AM to 5th 11:59 PM review window, 6th 12:00 AM auto-confirmation to Admin approval, disbursement on the 10th of the following month or next working day if the 10th is a bank holiday, and a minimum monthly disbursement threshold of Rs. 1,500).
• Leave & Reschedule Responsibility: Counsellors must mark planned leaves in advance. If leaves conflict with confirmed bookings, the counsellor is responsible for coordinating reschedules via the administrative dashboard after acknowledging the system disclaimer: “Disclaimer: This will override the existing session with the new date and time on both the counselee and counsellor’s page.”
• Disciplinary Dashboard: Quality audit observations are logged on the counsellor’s disciplinary dashboard. Critical non-tolerable breaches result in rating deductions or contract termination.

11. Dedicated Covenants for Sales Counsellors & Lead Coordinators

These covenants govern all sales counsellors, tele-callers, and business development executives:

• Lead Assignment & Fair Allocation: Demo leads in the pool show restricted details (name, category, language, location) without phone numbers until accepted. The Sales Counsellor ID is mapped immediately upon acceptance. Leads cannot be cherry-picked.
• Strict Customer Data Protection: Sales personnel are strictly prohibited from writing down, saving, exporting, or utilizing customer phone numbers or email addresses for personal contact or third-party marketing. All communications must flow through authorized platform telephony channels.
• Ethical Selling & GST Transparency: Sales Counsellors must accurately represent curriculum coverage and pricing. Course fees must transparently display the statutory 18% GST with SAC Codes 999293/999299. Promising false guarantees, unauthorized discounts, or misrepresenting faculty is strictly prohibited.
• Lead Lifecycle Tracking: For unreachable leads, contact attempts must be logged for 2 weeks before executing case transfer to Administration. Complete KYC document collection must be secured prior to onboarding.
• Commission Reconciliations, Payout Schedule & Clawbacks: Sales commissions and payouts follow the platform-wide monthly verification and disbursement protocol: from the 1st (12:00 AM) till the 5th (11:59 PM), the system prompts Sales Counsellors to review their auto-calculated statement (which moves to Admin for approval upon confirmation, or is automatically confirmed at 12:00 AM on the 6th if unconfirmed). Approved payouts of Rs. 1,500 or more are disbursed on the 10th of the following month (or the next working day if the 10th is a bank holiday); any payout under Rs. 1,500 is carried forward and paid with the next month’s salary/payout. If a student or counselee cancels an enrolment and receives a refund within approved policy terms, any commission accrued on refunded unconsumed sessions is subject to reconciliation and clawback in the subsequent pay cycle.

12. Dedicated Covenants for Administrators, Super Admins & Quality Auditors

These covenants govern platform operations, compliance officers, and quality auditors:

• Administrative Oversight: Platform Administrators hold authority to approve or reject KYC documents (“KYC Completed” vs “KYC Documents Pending”), create batches, assign verified substitute teachers, and arbitrate dispute resolutions.
• System Kill-Switch Authority: Administrators have the technical capability and authority to immediately terminate active sessions, freeze suspicious payout balances, revoke access tokens, and permanently ban profiles violating platform codes of conduct.
• Universal Monthly Payout Verification, Admin Approval & Disbursement Cycle (Across Roles):
  • Member Review Window (1st 12:00 AM to 5th 11:59 PM): For all stakeholders expecting a monthly payout (Teachers, Professional Counsellors, Quality Auditors, and Sales Counsellors), the system prompts members from 12:00 AM on the 1st until 11:59 PM on the 5th of each month to review their system-generated, auto-calculated payout statement. If confirmed within this period, the statement moves immediately to Administration for Approval.
  • Deemed Acceptance & Auto-Confirmation (6th 12:00 AM Onward): From 12:00 AM on the 6th onward, if a member has not manually confirmed their statement, the system deems the auto-calculated amount accepted as correct and Auto-Confirms it, automatically moving the payout to Administration for Approval.
  • Disbursement Date & Bank Holiday Rule (10th of the Following Month): Admin-approved payouts across all roles are disbursed on the 10th of the following month after applicable statutory TDS deductions. If the 10th falls on a scheduled bank holiday, disbursement is executed on the next working day. Downloadable pay slips are generated following disbursement.
  • Minimum Rs. 1,500 Disbursement Threshold & Carry-Forward: Any monthly payout amount strictly less than Rs. 1,500 (< Rs. 1,500) will not be disbursed in that cycle; it is automatically carried forward, added to, and paid along with the next month’s salary/payout. Consequently, actual fund disbursement in any month shall be Rs. 1,500 or more.
  • Statutory Tax Filings: Administration executes quarterly TDS filings, issues annual TDS certificates, and manages statutory GST reporting.
• Quality Auditor Protocols:
  • Designated Quality Auditors review recorded sessions for pedagogical quality, safety, and protocol compliance.
  • Mandatory Auditor Camera: While performing an active session audit, the auditor’s camera must remain active and verified by system telemetry.
  • Confidential Auditor Compensation: Commercial compensation for compliant active auditing is confidential, governed by role-specific alignment agreements, and processed under the universal monthly payout verification and disbursement cycle detailed above.

13. Limitation of Liability & Indemnification

Learning Buddha exercises rigorous diligence in verifying the academic credentials of teachers and professional counsellors. However, academic results, examination performance, and counseling breakthroughs depend fundamentally upon individual user diligence, receptivity, and independent effort.

To the fullest extent permitted by Indian law, Learning Buddha shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, punitive, or consequential damages resulting from the use of, or inability to use, the Platform. Learning Buddha’s maximum aggregate liability for any claim arising out of or related to these Terms shall not exceed the actual fee paid by the User for the specific session or course giving rise to such claim.

Users agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Learning Buddha, its proprietors, directors, employees, and authorized agents from any claims, liabilities, losses, or legal costs arising from user breach of these Terms, unauthorized off-platform activities, or intellectual property violations.

14. Governing Law & Exclusive Jurisdiction

These Terms of Service shall be governed by, interpreted, and construed exclusively in accordance with the substantive laws of the Republic of India.

Any dispute, legal controversy, or formal proceeding arising out of or in connection with these Terms or the Platform shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent civil courts situated in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.