Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("User", "you", or "your") and SIHJantaParty ("we", "our", or "the platform"), accessible via sihjantaparty.in.

By accessing, browsing, creating an account, or otherwise using SIHJantaParty, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these Terms, you must immediately discontinue using the platform.

SIHJantaParty is a collaborative web platform developed to assist students and hackers participating in or preparing for the Smart India Hackathon (SIH 2026).

The platform provides tools for student onboarding, skill-based matchmaking, team creation and roster management, join/invite workflows, real-time team messaging, and browsing official SIH problem statements.

All official rules, submission deadlines, problem statements, and selection results are determined solely by the official organizers of Smart India Hackathon. Using SIHJantaParty does not constitute official registration or submission to the Smart India Hackathon.

SIHJantaParty is intended primarily for college and university students, mentors, and software enthusiasts who are exploring, building, or participating in hackathons.

By using this platform, you represent and warrant that:

• You have the legal capacity to enter into these Terms.
• You will use the platform strictly for legitimate educational, collaborative, and hackathon team-building purposes.
• You will not use the platform for fraudulent, commercial spam, or malicious activities.

To access dashboard features, create teams, or message other students, you must create an account. We support authentication via email codes, passwords, Google OAuth, and GitHub OAuth, powered securely by Clerk.

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activities that occur under your account. If you believe your account security has been compromised, notify us immediately.

When completing your onboarding and public hacker profile, you agree to provide accurate and truthful information regarding your name, college, academic year, tech stacks, and role.

Misrepresenting your academic institution, technical credentials, or identity to deceive other teams or manipulate matchmaking is strictly prohibited.

Team leaders may create squad cards, declare needed technical roles, and invite other users. Individual hackers may apply to open team seats.

• Team Roster Limit: To mirror SIH guidelines, teams are capped at a maximum of 6 members.
• Team Leadership: The creator of a team acts as team leader with authority to accept or decline incoming join requests.
• Informal Coordination: Team formation on SIHJantaParty is an internal matchmaking convenience and must still be formally registered on the official SIH portal by team leaders.

SIHJantaParty provides direct messaging and squad chat functionality to allow students to discuss hackathon problem statements, technical architecture, and team synergy before finalizing their roster.

All communications must remain civil, respectful, and focused on collaboration. Threats, harassment, discriminatory language, sexual misconduct, or unprovoked hostility will result in immediate account termination.

You agree to use SIHJantaParty only in a manner consistent with applicable laws and these Terms. You agree not to disrupt the platform or harass other student members.

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities on SIHJantaParty:

• Scraping, harvesting, or bulk downloading user profile information, contact numbers, or team data.
• Sending unsolicited promotional messages, marketing pitches, or commercial spam.
• Impersonating another student, college mentor, or hackathon official.
• Attempting to probe, scan, breach, or compromise the platform's security infrastructure.
• Distributing malware, malicious links, or harmful scripts in chat channels or bio descriptions.
• Interfering with or disrupting the real-time WebSocket communication channels.

You retain all ownership and intellectual property rights in any text, profile information, ideas, or project plans you share on the platform ("User Content").

By submitting User Content to SIHJantaParty, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to store, process, display, and transmit your content solely to operate the platform features (e.g. displaying your profile card, delivering messages).

Problem statements, ministry descriptions, organizations, and category tags displayed on SIHJantaParty are curated from publicly available Smart India Hackathon releases for informational and team-matching convenience.

While we strive for accuracy, users must verify official problem statement details, guidelines, and eligibility requirements on the official Smart India Hackathon portal.

All team selection decisions, member assignments, and hackathon submissions are handled entirely by independent student participants.

SIHJantaParty utilizes third-party infrastructure to deliver service functionality, including Clerk for identity and authentication, Google and GitHub for OAuth sign-in, MongoDB Atlas for data persistence, and Hugging Face Spaces for real-time messaging.

Your interactions with third-party providers are governed by their respective terms and privacy policies.

The SIHJantaParty name, visual design, custom UI components, branding, and software code are the intellectual property of SIHJantaParty and its creators. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, or redistribution of the platform's codebase or proprietary assets without express permission is prohibited.

We strive to maintain high availability and reliability, especially during active hackathon phases. However, the service is provided on an "as available" basis.

We reserve the right to modify, update, pause, or discontinue features or the entire platform at any time without prior notice or liability.

We reserve the right to suspend or permanently terminate your account and access to the platform at our sole discretion, with or without notice, if you violate these Terms, engage in harassment, attempt unauthorized access, or abuse platform resources.

You may stop using the platform and request account deletion at any time by emailing contact@sihjantaparty.in.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, SIHJANTAPARTY IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SIHJANTAPARTY, ITS DEVELOPERS, CONTRIBUTORS, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, USE, OR GOODWILL ARISING FROM OR RELATED TO YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PLATFORM.

We may revise these Terms of Service from time to time to reflect operational, technical, or legal updates. When changes are made, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page.

Continued use of SIHJantaParty after any modifications signifies your acceptance of the revised Terms.