Expert Code of Conduct

This Code binds every expert listed on Yagyanam — astrologers, acharyas, pandits and priests — from application to offboarding. It exists to protect seekers, to protect the standing of honest practitioners, and to keep the Platform's intermediary role clean. It is part of the expert's agreement with Yagyanam; breach of this Code is breach of that agreement. Standards under this Code are developed and reviewed with senior practitioners on the Platform — the Expert Council — and bind every expert once published.

1. Standing — independent, verified, accountable

• Experts are independent service providers and sellers on a marketplace within the meaning of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. Nothing in the listing creates employment, partnership, agency or joint venture with Yagyanam.
• The advice, predictions, interpretations, remedies and ceremonies an expert provides are the expert's own professional-religious services; responsibility for them — including their accuracy, propriety and consequences — rests with the expert.
• Yagyanam acts solely as mediator and facilitator: it verifies identity, hosts the engagement, holds the standards, collects the payment and provides recourse. It does not co-author, direct or underwrite the expert's advice.
• Experts must comply with all law applicable to their own practice, including their own tax registration and filings where thresholds apply.

2. Verification and KYC — every corner examined

No expert is listed without verification, and no settlement is released without complete KYC. What is collected, from whom and when:

• KYC data is processed under the Privacy Policy, stored in India, and used only for verification, settlements and legal compliance.
• Submitting a false, forged or borrowed document is the gravest breach of this Code: it voids the listing from the beginning, forfeits pending settlements to the fullest extent the law allows, and is reported to lawful authorities.
• An expert's public profile shows their verified first name or practice name, credentials and experience — never their personal contact details, which the Platform withholds by design.

3. The privacy wall

The seeker's trust rests on one architectural promise: everything stays on the Platform. Accordingly, an expert must never —

The chat lock protects the expert equally: Yagyanam cannot read consultations, and an expert's counsel remains between them and their seeker. Disputes are decided on the booking record and on what a seeker voluntarily shares.

4. Fear-free practice — the line that cannot be crossed

Yagyanam does not employ fear-based marketing, and it does not host practitioners who do. An expert must never manipulate a seeker — and manipulation includes, without limitation:

• manufacturing dread: pronouncing doshas, curses, or impending calamity in order to sell a remedy, a ritual or a further consultation;
• threatening misfortune to a seeker or their family if a recommendation is not purchased;
• claiming miraculous, guaranteed or supernatural cures or outcomes — prohibited also by the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954;
• exploiting grief, illness, anxiety or superstition — conduct the Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements, 2022 condemn in terms;
• misrepresenting qualifications, lineage or experience;
• pressuring a seeker with urgency invented for commercial ends ("book before sunset or the window closes").

5. The scope of counsel

• An expert speaks within jyotish and the ritual traditions they are verified for — and says so when a question falls outside them.
• No medical, psychiatric, legal, financial or investment prescriptions: an expert may never advise discontinuing treatment or medication, guarantee case outcomes, or direct investments.
• A seeker in evident medical or psychological distress is to be pointed, kindly and immediately, to qualified professional help — before anything else.
• Remedies recommended must be proportionate, traditional and honestly priced; recommending one's own paid services is permitted only with the disclosure that it is one's own service.

6. Service standards

• Honour the response window stated on your profile; keep availability honest and calendars current.
• Perform rituals as described — the stated ceremony, the stated samagri, the confirmed sankalpa — and prove them: share photographs of the key moments in the booking conversation, or a live broadcast where you offer one. These updates ARE the proof of performance; prasad and physical reports are not, and are never presented as such.
• Prasad is yours to offer, never an obligation and never a vague promise: if you offer it (or muhurat notes, or a physical report), state its availability, contents, cost and timing in the booking conversation, and hand the consignment to the Care-Team-arranged courier. The commitment and its fulfilment are yours alone; the Platform only coordinates the delivery without exposing anyone's address.
• No delegation of a booked ceremony without prior disclosure and the seeker's consent.
• Reviews are earned, never engineered: soliciting, trading, incentivising or authoring reviews — for oneself or against another expert — is prohibited under the E-Commerce Rules and this Code.
• Content posted to community areas must observe Section 6 of the Terms & Conditions and the dignity of every tradition and person.

7. Enforcement — the exact conditions

Enforcement is proportionate, evidenced and appealable — and, for the gravest conduct, immediate. The ladder:

• Every action is communicated in writing with its grounds; the expert may respond within 7 days, and the response is considered before a final order.
• Appeals go to the Grievance Officer under the Grievance Redressal Policy.
• Removal — voluntary or enforced — triggers the Exit terms of the Expert Settlement Policy: lawful dues are paid, forfeitures are itemised, and the expert's data is retained only as the Privacy Policy and law require.

8. Liability and indemnity

The expert is solely responsible for the services they render and warrants that their practice on the Platform complies with law. The expert indemnifies Yagyanam against claims, penalties and costs arising from the expert's advice, ceremonies, content, breach of this Code, or violation of law — including claims by seekers and proceedings by authorities. Yagyanam's role and liability as an intermediary are as stated in Sections 2 and 12 of the Terms & Conditions.